Malcolm Moss (Shadow Minister (Culture, Media & Sport), Culture, Media & Sport; North East Cambridgeshire, Conservative)

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what previous connection Professor Stephen Crow of the Casino Advisory Panel has had with the Department in the past.

Yvette Cooper (Minister of State (Housing and Planning), Department for Communities and Local Government; Pontefract & Castleford, Labour)

Between 1988 and his retirement in 1994, Stephen Crow was the Chief Planning Inspector of the Planning Inspectorate. Prior to his appointment as Chief Planning Inspector he was a field Inspector determining planning appeals and other casework. Since his retirement he has acted as independent chairperson of Examinations in Public into the following:

Regional Planning Guidance for the South-East (RPG 9) —June 1999

Shropshire, Telford & Wrekin Structure Plan—Jan 2001

Devon Joint Structure Plan—June 2003

Cornwall Structure Plan—July 2003

Nottingham and Nottinghamshire Joint Structure Plan— June 2004

NW Regional Spatial Strategy amendments— November 2004

In undertaking Structure Plan examinations, the chair reported to the local authority concerned, not the Secretary of State.

He also did research work on Completion Notices for DTLR in 2001.