Clause 1
Planning Bill
10:45 am
David Jones (Shadow Secretary of State for Wales, Wales; Clwyd West, Conservative)
My hon. Friend makes a powerful argument. In essence, she is saying that in the Planning Inspectorate we already have a reservoir of talent and experience and we should take advantage of it, not cast it aside. Does she share my concern that the Planning Inspectorate already has the skills, both legal and otherwise, to spot the potential pitfalls that can arise during a long and complex hearing, which would not necessarily be in the hands of those who might recently have been co-opted on to the panel of the IPC? We run the risk of the nightmare scenario of not just one but a series of judicial reviews during the course of a hearing, which might considerably lengthen the procedure rather than shortening it.