To ask the Minister for Infrastructure to outline whether she has any plans to revise planning laws to enable investment to take account of any of Northern Ireland's trading advantages.

Ms Kimmins

The planning system plays a key role in supporting sustainable development and economic growth. It must operate in the public interest and provide a fair and balanced framework for all types of development, regardless of the extent or scale of investment. We are all very aware that planning is a collective issue, and all stakeholders must play their part in delivering the necessary changes and improvements to establish an environment that will enhance the prospects for investment and trade in the North. That includes local councils, which have responsibility for a significant number of planning functions. Whilst I have no plans to revise planning legislation specifically to reflect trading advantages, you will be aware of my Department's ongoing work to bring forward the planning improvement programme, which I mentioned. That is intended to improve the efficiency of the planning system by bringing about improvements in application processing times, the quality of applications and the delivery of local development plans. That is the right approach to ensuring that the planning system works better for everyone and remains focused on delivering balanced, sustainable outcomes. That, in turn, will provide impetus in achieving a positive environment for potential investment in the North and enhance the prospects of developing trade.

Ms Kimmins

I will go back to my previous answer and say that that is exactly one of the reasons why my predecessor, John O'Dowd, initiated the work on the planning improvement programme. It is critical for everything across government that we talk about here, whether it be housing, the economy, education or health. I agree with the Member. I come from a constituency that has been critically impacted on by long planning times. We have been able to identify common issues right across the 11 council areas, including staffing and resource issues, and how we can better streamline that process so that people do not have to wait for three years on an application. However, it has been a really extensive piece of work, and we will see good outcomes. I hope that the Member will be reassured to know that that is a key element of the work that is taking place.

Mr McHugh

Minister, in the same vein, this is a problem that exists throughout the North of Ireland, so will you outline the steps that you are taking to improve planning statutory consultees' response times?

Ms Kimmins

I thank the Member for the question. As elected representatives from different constituencies, we all hear about some of the delays. I have introduced a number of measures to improve that planning consultation process, including the publication of quarterly and annual reports on statutory consultation performance to enhance and encourage improvements; statutory requirements for validation checklists to make the planning application process more efficient and effective; the delivery of specific bespoke training to statutory consultees' staff on environmental impact assessments; the production of a protocol for statutory consultees to support them as well as local government; and the planning statutory consultee forum, which is a cross-governmental group that will continue to meet regularly to constructively address issues impacting on the effectiveness of the consultation process. When you speak to applicants, businesses and people who are in that process, you find that this can be an area of real frustration, especially if they are waiting on one consultee response. I hope that all those measures will help to speed up and streamline the process.