Transparency data

Board meeting minutes 27 May 2021 - The Planning Inspectorate

Updated 17 April 2024

Applies to England

Minutes FINAL (29th July 2021)

Title of meeting	Planning Inspectorate Board Meeting
Date	28 January 2021
Venue Virtual meeting	all participants dialled in
Chair Trudi Elliott (TE)	Chair

Present
Sally Dixon (SD)	Non-Executive Director (NED)
Rebecca Driver (RD)	Non-Executive Director (NED)
Stephen Tetlow (ST)	Non-Executive Director (NED)
Sarah Richards (SR)	Chief Executive
Christine Thorby (CT)	Director of Strategy
Graham Stallwood (GS)	Director of Operations
Simon Gallagher (SG)	Director of Planning, MHCLG
Neil Hemington (NH)	Chief Planner, Welsh Government

In attendance
Strategy and Corporate Governance Lead KT)
Head of Data & Performance (RG)
Strategic Governance Officer (notes) (NP)
Professional Lead – National Infrastructure (PL) (item 5)
Operations Lead – National Infrastructure & Transport (SGu) (item 5)
Operations Lead – Environmental Service (RH) (item 5)
Head of Operations (SW) (item 5)
Head of Strategy & Change (SC) (item 5)
Health, Safety & Wellbeing Manager (JB) (item 6)
Head of HR (SL) (item 6)

Observers
Danielle Pickup (DP)	Governance Admin Officer

Apologies
Navees Rahman (NR)	Director of Corporate Services

Minutes

1.0 Welcome and Declaration of Interests

1.1 The Chair welcomed the Board and called for Declarations of Interest, of which there were none.

2.0 Minutes of previous Board meeting and corporate action tracker

March Board minutes – part one 2.1 No further comments were received.

March Board minutes – part two 2.2 Amend reference to project speed which is a number of programmes.

Corporate Action Tracker 2.3 No further comments were received.

Agreed:

2a) Subject to the amendment of part two minutes, the minutes are an accurate record of the March meeting.

3.0 Sponsor updates

MHCLG

3.1 The Board received the following update from MHCLG sponsor (SG):

• Planning Reform is progressing well and was set out in the Queen’s speech.
• Awaiting results of Gateway review on Planning Reform Project.
• Planning for post COVID and return to offices in line with the roadmap 21st June continues.
• Co-ordinating work across government to support economic recovery.
• Work is underway to set up an MHCLG office in Wolverhampton, this is connected to the levelling up agenda which is visible across Government.

Welsh Government

3.2 The Board received the following update from the Welsh Government sponsor (NH):

• A new Government is now in place following the March elections.
• The Planning Minister remains unchanged.
• The Ministry also includes climate change.
• Welsh separation project remains on track to meet the October deadline and the package being offered to transferring staff has been finalised.

Agreed: 3a) To note the Sponsor updates.

4.0 Dashboard, including Operational Performance

4.1 Dashboard update for the Board:

• The Strategic Plan dashboard is being developed, with a monthly ask and tell approach taking place at Executive Team meetings.
• Response times to customer complaints is improving, the team are monitoring performance in this area to track the change in timeliness.
• The Institute of Customer Service survey results have been added to the dashboard, the Head of Innovation and the Customer Insights Lead are planning to gather more regular insights.
• The Gender Pay Gap for April 2021 is lower than the previous quarter.

4.2 Performance update for the Board:

• In April there was reduced capacity because of the holidays and was an expected dip in performance.
• Performance for May and June is expected to progress well, and we have started to model summer performance.
• End to end average time for planning appeals considered by written representations has improved since November 2020.
• A higher number of planning inquiry decisions are being issued following the high number of inquiries we have held.
• Work is underway to scenario plan performance recovery, taking into consideration holidays and availability of Salaried and Non-Salaried Inspectors (NSIs).
• High Court challenge data gives us insights and is used for training. Customer complaints and insights are now shifting into a different space, working with MHCLG colleagues we are working to link up the end to end process which includes submission of application, through to appeal).

Agreed:

4a) Great progress has been made to develop the dashboard. Actions: 4b) RG to include long run of case data in future dashboards to show trends. 4c) RG to share scenario plans with the Board. 4d) RG to add

• UKSCI scorecard - use this format to capture data.
• ODT KPIs, outputs and deliverables.
• Budget profile, annularity of performance, see the longer term and seasonal trends.
• Age profiles of staff to the dashboard.

4e) RG/ CH/ DC to bring customer complaints data to a later Board meeting (September Board).

5.0 Project Speed & Planning Reform update – (OFFICIAL SENSITIVE) – PART TWO MINUTES

6.0 Health & Safety update

6.1 The key update for the Board:

• An action plan has been developed, with three key priority areas identified.
• The key priority areas will be discussed at the next Health, Safety and Wellbeing Committee meeting, with the aim to set up project groups to deliver.
• SL, NR and JB are in discussion with the Trade Unions about the makeup of the Committee, who should attend and reporting lines.

Actions:

6a) JB to return to July with a Health, Safety and Wellbeing update. 6b) SL/ JB to consider engaging with outside speakers to support Health, Safety and Wellbeing i.e. talks about taking leave, wellbeing and the resources available.

7.0 Forward look, review of this meetings, AOB

Agreed & Action:

7a) All to give feedback to RD on ARAC’s report to the Board. 7b) TE to draft the blog from the Board. 7c) NP and TE to review the forward look and draft July agenda.

Next meeting: 10th June 2021