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

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of pre-examination checklists on the time taken to (a) examine and (b) adopt local plans.

The government is committed to achieving a more efficient and consistent local plan examination process. The pre-examination checklist was introduced this month to assist Local Planning Authorities in identifying and resolving potential problems with emerging plans at an earlier stage. This reduces the risk of protracted examinations that result in local plans that cannot be adopted because they cannot be found sound.