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Mr. McGrady: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what financial resources were allocated to the implementation ofplanning enforcement cases in each of the planning divisions in each of the last five years; how many officers are employed toundertake enforcement work in each of the planning divisions in Northern Ireland; and how many there were in 1997. [116833]Angela Smith: The Department of the Environment's Planning Service's annual expenditure on salaries for officers employed inenforcement work, during the last five financial years, was:_________________________________________________________________________________________________.£1998-99 338,1001999-2000 353,3002000-01 369,2002001-02 385,8002002-03 403,200_________________________________________________________________________________________________.There are currently 20 officers devoted to enforcement work. These officers are deployed by Divisional Planning Office as follows:_________________________________________________________________________________________________.NumberBelfast Division 3Ballymena Division 3Craigavon Division 3Downpatrick Division 3Londonderry Division 4Omagh Division 4_________________________________________________________________________________________________.The additional officers in the Londonderry and Omagh Divisions are based in the Coleraine and Enniskillen sub-offices.This dedicated staffing complement was put in place in 1998. Prior to this, enforcement work was taken forward as an integral partof development control casework and it is therefore not possible to provide comparison figures for 1997.A number of measures to enhance enforcement powers were included in the Planning (Amendment) (Northern Ireland) Order 2003, tosimplify, streamline and strengthen the Department's existing enforcement powers.Planning Service is also reviewing the resources dedicated to enforcement as part of the Modernising Planning ProcessesImplementation Plan, and is seeking substantial additional resources to address enforcement and other priority areas. Views onwhether the costs of enforcement action should be recovered from planning fees will also be sought in a consultation paper onplanning fees, which is due to be published shortly. |