Board meeting minutes 28th March 2024 - The Planning Inspectorate
Updated 17 September 2024
Applies to England
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Minutes 16th May 2024 date
| Title of meeting | Planning Inspectorate Board Meetings |
|---|---|
| Date | 28 March 2024 |
| Venue | Virtual |
| Chair | Trudi Elliott |
| Present | Planning Inspectorate Board Meeting |
|---|---|
| Oliver Munn (OM) | Non-Executive Director |
| Emir Feisal (EF) | Non-Executive Director |
| Adrian Penfold (AP) | Non-Executive Director |
| Paul Morrison (PM) | Chief Executive |
| Joanne Butcher (JB) | Chief Finance Officer |
| In attendance | |
|---|---|
| Full meeting | |
| Corporate Governance Officer (NP), minutes and actions | |
| Executive Support and Governance Officer (DP), meeting support | |
| Madeleine Burch (MB), Non-Executive Director Boardroom Apprentice | |
| Graham Stallwood (GS), Chief Operating Officer | |
| Sean Canavan (SC), Chief Strategy Officer | |
| Rachel Graham (RG), Chief Digital and Information Officer | |
| Head of People (RH) (sub for Chief People Officer) | |
| Arthur Young (AY), DLUHC (sub for Charlotte Spencer) | |
| Attending for specific items | |
| Head of Business Improvement and Stakeholder Management | (LB) (item 5) |
| Senior Media and External Affairs Manager (GL) (item 5) | |
| Strategy and Corporate Governance Lead (BM) (item 6) | |
| Head of Strategy and Change (SH) (items 6,8 & 9) | |
| Financial Controller (BE) (item 7) | |
| Risk, Fraud and Business Continuity Manager (item 7) | |
| Apologies | |
| Charlotte Spencer (CS) Leasehold Land and Planning Delivery Director, DLUHC | |
| Richard Schofield (RS), Chief Planning Inspector | |
| Observer | |
| Communications Lead (HJ) and Project Management Lead (TJ) |
1. 1.0 - Welcome and Declaration of Interests
1.1 The Chair called for Declarations of Interest, of which there were none.
1.2 The Chair welcomed AY, TJ and HJ to the Board.
1.3 The Chair noted apologies from CS and RS.
2. 2.0 - Minutes of the January and February Board meetings and corporate action tracker
2.1 No further comments or amendments received for the part one or part two January Board minutes or the part two February minutes.
2.2 No further updates received for the action tracker.
2.3 The draft January Audit and Risk Assurance Committee (ARAC) minutes were shared for information, no further comments were received.
*Agreed:
2a) The part one and part two minutes of the January Board and part two of the February Board meetings are an accurate record of the meetings.
3. 3.0 Chief Executive’s (CEO) update to the Board
3.1 The OnePINS event and Professional Practice Conference took place in March. This was an opportunity for the organisation to come together and undertake training and development. The Executive Team (ET) also introduced the 2024/25 Business Plan and priorities.
3.2 The application service is now live, all new Nationally Significant Infrastructure Projects (NSIPs) will be created in the new service. The service is running well and is the first service running end to end meeting all Government Digital Service (GDS) compliance.
4. 4.0 Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) update to the Board
4.1 Since the January Board meeting, DLUHC has a number of announcements about the long term plan for housing. This included launching a series of consultations seeking views on changes to national policy to strengthen support for use of brownfield development, changes to existing permitted development rights and a consultation to seek views on a range of measures to accelerate the planning system.
4.2 At the beginning of March Bristol City Council and St Albans City and District Council have been designed under s62a for their speed in decision making on non-major applications.
5. 5.0 Stakeholders and Customers - introduction
5.1 The Business Improvement and Stakeholder Management (BISM) team propose attending the Board regularly to provide feedback and share stakeholder survey data and to gather feedback from the Board on engagements and feedback they have received.
5.2 AP reflected it is important for the Board to have structured feedback from stakeholders via a regular report, summarising survey information and other engagement opportunities which sets out the impact of engagements and how it is moving forward. This should be supported by key performance indicators (KPIs) and segmented information to support the various groups.
5.3 EF reflected in another organisation stakeholder groups have come together inviting Board members to sessions, will something similar take place with the industry in relation to the planning reforms. AY said this will be taking place within DLUHC and is likely to include the same stakeholders. AY suggested connecting GL with the team at DLUHC.
5.4 The BISM team are looking at a series of webinars to harness the expert knowledge in house, speaking about the reforms and to reach a wider audience. PM suggested we continue this work through the Planning Advisory Service (PAS) and think about the other sectors such as the Local Government Agency (LGA). Combining our platforms and partnering more with the planning sectors.
** Agreed:**
5a) to endorse AP’s feedback to the Board and the involvement of the NEDs in emerging stakeholder information. Clarity is needed on how to engage the NEDs/ Board and return feedback to the Board to inform decisions.
Actions:
5b) AY to put GL in touch with DLUHC stakeholder team to join up stakeholder intelligence.
5c) GL/ LB to return to the May Board with the outcomes of the stakeholder survey and emerging themes.
6. 6.0 Balanced scorecard
6.1 In February four of the timeliness measures were reporting red.
6.2 The Ministerial 50th percentile and 90th percentile measures are both reporting green for written representations and hearings, along with the 50th percentile for inquiries.
6.3 Unit cost measures with report to the Board from May onwards in the new format balanced scorecard.
6.4 The output measure indicates we are deciding 10% more cases than are being received.
6.5 At the end of financial year for 2023/24, four business plan workstreams have completed and closed. Only one workstream remains red which is in relation to the accommodation project. 15 workstream are green or amber green and will complete this year, with some continuing into the 2024/25 business plan. Eight workstreams are amber and are under review.
6.6 Customer measures continue to improve, with complaints handling within 10% of the measure and Freedom of Information (FoI) requests meeting the service level agreement (SLA).
6.7 The Board reflected the positive improvements around performance. PM agreed it is positive and paid tribute to the increased efforts across the organisation. Whilst the backlog is falling, it does need to continue to do so at a quicker rate to achieve the strategic plan mission and ambitions.
6.8 The quality measures will change from all input measures to include output and the number of cases requiring remedial action.
6.9 In the updated balanced scorecard, measures against the strategic plan mission and ambitions will show the flight path to achieve the target. PM will also provide an update on how we are addressing red and red-amber measures and the decisions made by the ET.
6.10 OM suggested looking at policy changes at the same time as reviewing demand and fluctuations. This be important as we think about the political landscape and planning reform.
Actions:
6a) BM to include with the next version of the balanced scorecard how we are moving red/ red-amber measures back on track.
6b) PM and SC to consider timing of a workshop on policy change and workload fluctuations, including the Futures Lead and AY and colleagues.
7. 7.0 Strategic Risk Register – OFFICIAL SENSITIVE
7.1 Recorded in the part two minutes.
8. 8.0 Endorse 2024/25 Business Plan – OFFICIAL SENSITIVE
8.1 Recorded in the part two minutes.
9. 9.0 Approve the Board and Committee Terms of Reference and Board templates
9.1 Following the Board effectiveness review and working with the recommendations, the Board, ARAC and Remuneration Committee terms of reference were update.
9.2 AP as Chair of the Remuneration Committee asked for the section on gender pay gap, fair pay and the role to the Board and reporting to be strengthened ahead of submitting to the Board.
9.2 The Board was asked to approve the three terms of reference and new Board paper template which aligns with the mission and ambitions of the strategic plan.
** Agreed:**
9a) Taking each ToR in turn, the Board approved each ToR and the new Board paper template. ### 10.0 Forward Look, review of the meeting, blog key points
Action: