Mr. Gareth R. ThomasTo ask the Secretary of State for Transport, Local Government and the Regions what the performance of the Government Offices for the Regions in 2000–01 was in meeting targets for issuing decisions on called-in planning applications and on recovered appeals following receipt of the inspector's report; and if he will make a statement. [6449]
§ Ms KeebleThe information is as follows:
Called-in applications
Target: issue 80 per cent. of decisions in 13 weeks and 100 per cent. in 20 weeksPerformance: 60.9 per cent. issued in 13 weeks and 72.9 per cent. in 20 weeksRecovered appeals
Target: issue 80 per cent. of decisions within eight weeks and 100 per cent, in 13 weeks.Performance: 56.4 in eight weeks and 66.9 in 13 weeks.The number of call-in and recovery cases—typically, between 120 and 150 of each a year—represents a very small proportion of the number of planning applications and appeals dealt with every year. They also tend to be rather more complicated than the generality of planning decisions. Nevertheless, it is clear that, overall, there continues to be a need to expedite the decision-making process. The Department is considering what further measures are needed to improve performance.