Official Statistics

Planning Inspectorate Ministerial Measures - Experimental Statistics 21 May 2026

Published 21 May 2026

Applies to England

1. Introduction

This report provides information on how the Planning Inspectorate has performed against measures by which Ministers agreed to assess the organisation’s casework performance for appeals.

These measures are:

• Measure A: Appeals valid on first submission
• Measure B: How long appeals take (There is also an ambition for more consistent, timely decisions)
• Measure C: Customer satisfaction
• Number of cases quality assured

Full details of these are available.

For measure A, this report covers the period October 2024 to December 2025.

Measure B covers the 12 months from April 2025 to March 2026.

For measure C, survey fieldwork was carried out in April and early May 2023.

Measure D covers the three months January to March 2026.

These statistics are designated as Official Statistics in Development. Any feedback would be welcome. Please send comments to statistics@planninginspectorate.gov.uk

2. A. Appeals Valid on First Submission

Ambition: Proportion rising annually and ambition to reach 100%

For appeals received during October to December 2025, 59.7% were valid first time1. Table 1 shows the proportion valid on first submission over the year.

The figures in this time series are revised at each publication as some cases take many months to be validated.

Table 1 - Proportion of Appeals Valid on First Submission, By Quarter, for Appeals Received October 2024 to December 2025.

Appeals Received	Oct - Dec 2024	Jan – Mar 2025	Apr – Jun 2025	Jul – Sep 2025	Oct – Dec  2025
% Valid First Time	51.0%	52.0%	52.2%	53.6%	59.7%

Source: Horizon and Manage Appeals

Figure 1 – Proportion of Appeals Valid on First Submission for Selected Casework Types, Cases Received January 2024 to December 2025.

Source: Horizon and Manage Appeals

3. B. How Long Appeals Take

Ambition: As an initial milestone in making more consistent, timely decisions - The Planning Inspectorate should be working towards consistently achieving decisions in these ranges:

• Appeals decided entirely using written evidence in 16 – 20 weeks.
• Appeals decided including at least some evidence through hearing or inquiry in 24 - 26 weeks (30 weeks to recommendation for called in or recovered cases)

Note: We have removed Rights of Way cases from this measure as they have different target times. For more information see the BQR.

This section provides information on how long it has taken to make decisions in the last 12 months (in this case, April 2025 to March 2026).

Figure 2 below shows the proportion of cases decided:

• within 20 weeks ;
• within 26 weeks (but more than 20 weeks);
• within 52 weeks (but more than 26 weeks); and
• more than 52 weeks.

The data applies to all cases decided in the year to the end of March 2026 and is broken down by the procedure used to arrive at the decision. The data for this Figure is available at Annex B. 

Figure 2 shows that a larger proportion (14.0%) of cases decided by inquiries take more than a year than those decided by written representations (12.4%).

It also shows that a greater proportion of cases decided by written representations are decided within 20 weeks (50.7%) than those decided by hearings (27.8%) or inquiries (7.5%). 

Figure 2: Time for Valid to Decision, for Decisions April 2025 to March 2026.

Source: Horizon and Manage Appeals

Measures set by the Minister that apply to cases decided wholly by written representations are shown in Annex C.

Consultation If you would like to make a suggestion on which information you would like to see; or would like to have the chance to comment on any proposals on what is published, please contact us via statistics@planninginspectorate.gov.uk

Figure 2 shows the proportion of cases decided in time bands. Figure 3 below shows more detail. It gives the full spread of time taken to decide cases, providing visibility of those cases far outside the accepted range. It shows all cases decided in the 12 months to the end of March 2026; and a breakdown by the decision procedure.

Figure 3 shows:

• The spread of time taken to decide for all cases, is similar to the spread for those decided wholly by written representations. This is because the large majority (17,984/19,356 which is 93%) of cases are decided this way.
• Three quarters of cases decided wholly by written representations are decided within 32 weeks. The corresponding time for three quarters of cases decided wholly or partly by hearings is 36 weeks and for those wholly or partly by inquiries is 38 weeks.
• Nine in ten cases decided wholly by written representations are decided within 61 weeks. The corresponding time for nine out ten cases decided wholly or partly by hearings is 59 weeks and for inquiries it is 62 weeks.

Figure 3 – Spread of time taken to decide cases (in weeks), for cases decided April 2025 – March 2026.

Note: The figure for “Half the decisions are made within” is the 50th percentile; this is the same as the median time to decide these cases, which is how this is presented in the quarterly Official Statistics publication.

Source: Horizon and Manage Appeals

The Ministerial measure requires information on how long appeal decisions take from valid receipt to decision , with information on various percentiles.

Ambition: Decision time for 50th percentile falling. Decision time for 90th percentile falling faster than 50th percentile.

The ambition is that cases are decided more quickly, and the time taken for longest cases is reduced. If the ambition is met, the gap between the 50th percentile and 90th percentile needs to reduce.

A percentile is a measure that shows the value below which a given percentage of the values in a group of numbers fall. For example, if we tell you the 25th percentile for decision times, then you know that 25% of decisions are issued in less time (or the same time) as that.

Table 2 below shows the 25th, 50th, 75th and 90th percentiles for valid to decision, in weeks, for the decisions made from April 2025 to March 2026. Note that these match the timings given in text on the shapes in Figure 3 above.

Table 2 - Percentiles for Valid to Decision (in weeks) for decisions made April 2025 to March 2026 – and number of decisions in that time. Note: There are 415 appeal decisions in the last year that have no procedure type recorded (see Background Quality Report for more detail) These are excluded from the procedure totals in the table below. They have been added to the overall total.

	25th Percentile	50th Percentile	75th Percentile	90th Percentile	100th Percentile	Total Decisions
Written Representations	14 Weeks	20 Weeks	32 Weeks	61 Weeks	392 Weeks	17984
Hearing	19 Weeks	24 Weeks	36 Weeks	59 Weeks	175 Weeks	650
Inquiry	24 Weeks	27 Weeks	38 Weeks	62 Weeks	168 Weeks	307
All	14 Weeks	21 Weeks	33 Weeks	65 Weeks	392 Weeks	19356

Source: Horizon and Manage Appeals

If performance changes, it will be more quickly apparent by looking at quarterly data than 12 monthly data. Annex D shows the same percentiles, for decisions in the three months January to March 2026. There are relatively few hearings and inquiries in each quarter, which means quarterly percentiles for these appeals are susceptible to extreme values - so they should be viewed with caution.

Figure 4: All Appeal Decisions, 50th and 90th Percentile for Valid to Decision, By Quarter, April 2025 to March 2026.

Source: Horizon and Manage Appeals

Table 3 - All appeal Decisions, 50th and 90th percentiles of Valid to Decision (weeks), April 2024 – March 2026.

Decision made:	Median	90th Percentile	Gap
Apr - Jun 24	27 Weeks	50 Weeks	24 Weeks
Jul - Sep 24	26 Weeks	47 Weeks	21 Weeks
Oct - Dec 24	29 Weeks	56 Weeks	27 Weeks
Jan - Mar 25	27 Weeks	57 Weeks	30 Weeks
Apr - Jun 25	25 Weeks	61 Weeks	36 Weeks
Jul - Sep 25	21 Weeks	64 Weeks	43 Weeks
Oct - Dec 25	19 Weeks	65 Weeks	46 Weeks
Jan - Mar 26	18 Weeks	71 Weeks	52 Weeks

Source: Horizon and Manage Appeals

The table above covers all appeal decisions. Annex F gives figures for appeals decided wholly by written representations; wholly or partially through hearings; and wholly or partially through inquiries.

4. C. Customer Satisfaction

Ambition: Proportion of customers reporting satisfaction with the Planning Inspectorate’s services rising annually

No new valid customer satisfaction score is available for this reporting period.

The Planning Inspectorate has gathered feedback from customers who contacted customer services. This was deliberately collected to understand and improve the experience of customers engaging with the service. This feedback relates only to a subset of customers (those who contacted customer service) so is unlikely to be representative of all customers. As such it is not suitable for measuring overall customer satisfaction.

The most recent available valid data is the 2023 baseline score of 56.8.

PINS is planning future activity to collect data on customer satisfaction.

5. D. Number Of Cases Quality Assured

Ambition: There is no minimum number or percentage ambition on this measure.

During the three months January to March 2026, 1,413 appeal cases were quality assured. These are shown in Table 4 below.

Table 4 - Number of appeal decisions quality assured, October to December 2025.

Number	Category	Explanation
168	Inspector Manager team reading	Inspector Managers are expected to review a proportion of their Inspectors’ decisions post-decision. This is to ensure quality standards and to identify learning opportunities and to check for consistency with the relevant quality framework.
278	APOs	Recommendations made by Appeals Planning Officers (APOs) are all reviewed as part of routine quality assurance before a decision is issued by an Inspector.
967	Inspector in Training – pre-decision	Most decisions made by Inspectors in Training (IITs) are reviewed for teaching purposes. Each review is by an experienced Inspector.
1,413	Total Appeal decisions

Source: MiPINs

To put these totals in context, the 1,413 appeal decisions quality assured constitutes over a quarter (31%) of all decisions (4,558) issued over that period.

Table 5 shows the number of cases quality assured, beyond appeal cases, for the same quarter. These are much larger, more complex cases than the typical appeal case.

Table 5 - Number of Other Cases Quality Assured, January to March 2026.

Number	Category	Explanation
14	Local Plans	All Plan examination reports and letters are quality assured as part of the examination process. 14 Plan examination final reports were issued in this quarter. Quality assurance activity for examinations yet to be completed also progressed during the period.
3	Nationally Significant Infrastructure Projects (NSIP)	All NSIP decisions are quality assured as part of the examination process. 3 recommendation reports were submitted to the Secretary of State this quarter.

Source: Local Plan and NSIP case records

6. Annexes

Annex A - Proportion of Appeals Valid First Time for Selected Appeal Types, Appeals Received January 2024 to December 2025.

Appeal Type	Proportion Valid on First Submission	Number of Appeals Received
Planning Appeal	52.2%	9085
Householder (HAS)	64.9%	4142
Enforcement Notice	34.1%	2335
Lawful Development Certificate	69.1%	915
Commercial Appeal Service (CAS)	57.6%	533
Rights of way	46.2%	255
Environmental	75.6%	129
Appeal against Enforcement Listed Building Notice/Enforcement Conservation Area Notice	50.0%	63
Advert Discontinuance	20.0%	7

Source: Horizon and Manage Appeals

Note: Appeals not yet validated are included in the number of appeals received but excluded from the calculation on proportion valid on first submission

Annex B: Proportion of Appeals decided within 20, 26 and 52 weeks - Decisions April 2025 to March 2026. Note: Rights of Way have been removed from this, see BQR for more information.

	Within 20 weeks	Within 26 weeks	Within 52 weeks	More than 52 weeks
Wholly Written Representations	50.7%	15.2%	21.7%	12.4%
Wholly Hearings	27.8%	34.0%	26.0%	12.2%
Wholly Inquiries	7.5%	38.4%	40.1%	14.0%

Annex C: Decisions made wholly through written representations – Decisions April 2025 to March 2026 - Weeks from valid to Decision.

Performance against Ministerial measures – note this takes different groupings (16 weeks and 20 weeks) Note: Rights of Way have been removed from this, see BQR for more information

Annex D - Percentiles for Valid to Decision (in weeks) for decisions made January to March 2026 and number of decisions in that time. Note: There are 70 appeal decisions in the last quarter that have no procedure type recorded (see Background Quality Report for more detail) These are excluded from the procedure totals in the table below. They have been added to the overall total. Note: Rights of Way have been removed from this, see BQR for more information

Procedure	25th percentile	50th percentile	75th percentile	90th percentile	100th percentile	Total Decisions
Written Representation	13 Weeks	18 Weeks	31 Weeks	71 Weeks	392 Weeks	4232
Hearing	20 Weeks	25 Weeks	33 Weeks	48 Weeks	169 Weeks	139
Inquiry	24 Weeks	26 Weeks	33 Weeks	44 Weeks	120 Weeks	78
All	14 Weeks	18 Weeks	33 Weeks	71 Weeks	392 Weeks	4519

Source: Horizon and Manage Appeals

Annex E - Appeal Decisions, 50th and 90th percentiles of Valid to Decision (weeks), April 2024 to March 2026 - by procedure.

Note: all measurements are in weeks

Wholly by written representations

Decision made:	Median	90th Percentile	Gap
Apr - Jun 24	26	46	20
Jul - Sep 24	26	43	17
Oct - Dec 24	28	50	22
Jan - Mar 25	27	50	23
Apr - Jun 25	24	53	28
Jul - Sep 25	20	55	35
Oct - Dec 25	18	62	44
Jan - Mar 26	18	71	53

Wholly or partially through Hearings

Decision made:	Median	90th Percentile	Gap
Apr - Jun 24	29	91	62
Jul - Sep 24	28	90	62
Oct - Dec 24	34	104	70
Jan - Mar 25	32	80	48
Apr - Jun 25	24	43	19
Jul - Sep 25	23	95	72
Oct - Dec 25	24	63	39
Jan - Mar 26	25	48	23

Wholly or partially through Inquiries

Decision made:	Median	90th Percentile	Gap
Apr - Jun 24	47	100	52
Jul - Sep 24	28	76	48
Oct - Dec 24	28	72	44
Jan - Mar 25	34	75	41
Apr - Jun 25	33	112	79
Jul - Sep 25	26	53	26
Oct - Dec 25	26	56	30
Jan - Mar 26	26	44	18