Ms Maria Graham:

We can certainly give the Deputy a note on that. At various stages, there can be different actions that lead, ultimately, to infringements but sometimes letters of formal notice. The question of infringements is a matter that is regularly considered by the ministerial management board within the Department. Even apart from the review, there would be an ongoing check on where we are with different cases. We can follow up with a note on that. It would be a starting point and a step back, as the Deputy said, from this review. One of the issues was the looking at the transposition of directives. Have they been correctly done? Have we over transposed? Have we over complicated? That step back is probably important in the sense that sometimes these things are done at speed. This is an opportunity for us to look at how they all work together and how they are operationalised.

One of the issues we are conscious of over this time is that we have a different legal system. We have a common law legal system compared to the European system. I talked about the purpose of the directive and when cases go before the European Court of Justice. The focus is very much on whether the purpose and intent of the directive is being met. That is a good starting point for us to look at in any directive. Is it clear that we are meeting the purpose of the directive? Are all the steps that are there necessary and do they align with other steps in the planning process? If it becomes over complicated, it becomes very hard for people to engage and easy for people miss a step in that process.