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Planning Casework Performance

Communities and Local Government written statement – made at on 17 May 2007.

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Photo of Meg Munn Meg Munn Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Communities and Local Government) (Women and Equality)

The provisions of paragraphs 1 and 2 of Schedule 2 to the Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act 2004 require the Secretary of State to set and meet a timetable for the Majority of planning cases which are to be decided by her (as opposed to being decided by a Planning Inspector) where the inquiry closed on or after 1 April 2005; and to make a report to Parliament each year on performance. This is intended both to ensure that such cases are dealt with expeditiously and to enable the parties to any particular case to know when they can expect to receive a decision.

The Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government has accordingly today laid before Parliament an Act Paper reporting on all decisions where the inquiry, hearing or site visit ended on or after 1 April 2005 and the decision was made between 1 April 2006 and 31 March 2007. Some 199 of the 200 decisions—99.5 per cent.—made by the Secretary of State during this period on cases other than appeals under tree preservation orders were made within their statutory timetables, as were 694 out of 702 decisions—98.9 per cent.—on tree preservation order appeals.

These provisions relate to decisions on called-in planning applications; planning appeals recovered for the Secretary of State's decision; other cases linked to such decisions, including listed building consent, conservation area consent, advertisement consent and enforcement notice appeals; and tree preservation order appeals. They do not apply to cases decided by Inspectors or to those decided by the Secretary of State jointly with a Minister of another Department.

Secretary of State

Secretary of State was originally the title given to the two officials who conducted the Royal Correspondence under Elizabeth I. Now it is the title held by some of the more important Government Ministers, for example the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs.

Minister

Ministers make up the Government and almost all are members of the House of Lords or the House of Commons. There are three main types of Minister. Departmental Ministers are in charge of Government Departments. The Government is divided into different Departments which have responsibilities for different areas. For example the Treasury is in charge of Government spending. Departmental Ministers in the Cabinet are generally called 'Secretary of State' but some have special titles such as Chancellor of the Exchequer. Ministers of State and Junior Ministers assist the ministers in charge of the department. They normally have responsibility for a particular area within the department and are sometimes given a title that reflects this - for example Minister of Transport.

majority

The term "majority" is used in two ways in Parliament. Firstly a Government cannot operate effectively unless it can command a majority in the House of Commons - a majority means winning more than 50% of the votes in a division. Should a Government fail to hold the confidence of the House, it has to hold a General Election. Secondly the term can also be used in an election, where it refers to the margin which the candidate with the most votes has over the candidate coming second. To win a seat a candidate need only have a majority of 1.