Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what assessment he has made of the change in the time taken to process minor planning applications between 2010 and 2015; and if he will make a statement on the reasons for the change.

The Technical consultation on the implementation of planning changes, published in February 2016, set out our proposals for expanding the approach to improving planning performance in the processing of planning applications. We are considering responses received.

We want to raise performance, so we are extending the designation regime - which has improved processing time on major planning applications - to minor planning applications.

The attached table shows the performance in time taken to process major and minor planning applications.