Ms Oonagh Buckley:

Those who arrived in January are now fully functioning and trained up. They come from a variety of backgrounds, including some with a legal background. It is quite helpful to have that kind of background come into this role. We are currently putting the six who arrived last week and this week through their three-day induction process. The person who arrived last week is a planner by background. She will be dealing with planning files with effect from next week. I would expect, after a period of mentoring and watching what the board is doing, and taking advantage of the fact that we have many experienced board members now, we will start doing those three-person boards to bring those individuals into the space where they are taking decisions, particularly on those smaller householder cases that have been hanging around a long time.

I also have a programme of training, which we will introduce in May and June, around the law side of things. In addition, we are running an intensive series of half-day sessions using the in-house experience within the board, of which there is much, to train them up on specific planning issues. We will also start working with the Office of the Planning Regulator, OPR, to look at training more generally across the inspectorate and the board.