Mr. Peter Mullan:

It is rare that a local authority's decision is subject to judicial review. Almost all of the judicial reviews are related to our decision-making. If somebody is unhappy with a decision, he or she will appeal it to us. There has been an increase from approximately 3% or 4% of all of our decisions a year or a year and a half ago to 4.9% as of this morning. Obviously ,because we are at the pinnacle of the planning process, a number if issues can arise. They can be about the quality of our decision-making and on occasion, we get that wrong. However, it is reflective of the fact that because we are the final decision-maker, legal issues can arise for the first time which will be litigated all the way to the Supreme Court and we feel the effect of that. The net effect is obviously delays within the planning system. We will make our decisions and our timelines are getting better but obviously there will be delays in the judicial process. This also relates to the points my colleague Mr. Baneham made earlier. I understand that representatives of the Courts Service will appear before the committee next week. I worked for the Courts Service for a number of years and know that resources have been set aside for the planning and environment court. There are now three judges working more or less full time on that and the decision-making coming out of the High Court and the timelines in that regard are increasing month on month.