To ask the Minister of the Environment , pursuant to AQW 54627/11-16, to detail the number of times his Department’s Ministerial Planning Group have met since the transfer of planning functions to local government.

As I advised previously, my Department supports councils through various engagement groups, one of which is the Ministerial Planning Group, which I chair. This group has met on two occasions since the transfer of planning to local government in April 2015. The inaugural meeting was held on 14th December 2015 and the group met again for a second time on 8th March 2016.

These meetings have been extremely useful in bringing central and local government together to discuss and drive forward continuous improvement and best practice in planning and I would hope that this collaborative and constructive engagement continues into the future.