Written question WQ97307
- Asked by
- James EvansConservative
- To be answered by
- Cabinet Secretary for Economy, Energy and Planning
- Tabled
- Due
- Answered
- Time to answer
- 12 days
Question
What additional resources is the Welsh Government providing to Planning and Environment Decisions Wales to ensure the online portal is able to cope with large volumes of responses in respect of developments of national significance applications, and what is the timescale for any upgrades or improvements to be made?
Answer
Answered by Cabinet Secretary for Economy, Energy and Planning
Planning and Environment Decisions Wales (PEDW) were given a budget uplift of £2m in the financial year 2025/26 to increase their capacity to deal with the rise in applications for infrastructure projects alongside other increases to planning and environmental casework.
Some of this additional budget has already funded improvements to the Casework Portal and it is currently able to manage the large volumes of correspondence being received in response to applications for developments of national significance.
Further improvements to the portal are planned in the next few months to prepare for the new Infrastructure Consenting regime coming into force in December 2025.
Additional funding has also been used to increase staffing capacity to manage this casework and further recruitment is currently underway to increase resources across PEDW.