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

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what estimate he has made of the proportion of planning applications in England that will be determined by (a) elected planning committees and (b) planning officers following the introduction of the National Scheme of Delegation; what assessment he has made of the impact of those changes on local democratic accountability; and whether he plans to publish annual statistics on the proportion of planning applications determined by officers and by elected members.

My Department has published statutory guidance setting out how the national scheme of delegation will operate, including the arrangements for referral to planning committees and transparency and reporting requirements. This can be found on gov.uk here.

An updated impact assessment was reviewed by the Regulatory Policy Committee and published alongside the final Regulations (The Town and Country Planning (Discharge of Local Planning Authority Functions) (England) Regulations 2026). This can be found on gov.uk here.

My Department already publishes data on applications which are delegated to planning officers. Once the Regulations in question come into force on 31st October 2026, we will collect data on applications referred to planning committees. This information will be published alongside other national planning statistics on gov.uk here.