John O'Dowd

The Planning (General Development Procedure) (Amendment) Order (Northern Ireland) 2024 (S.R. No.176) will amend The Planning (General Development Procedure) Order (Northern Ireland) 2015 (S.R. No.72) to introduce a provision enabling councils to prepare and publish planning application validation checklists.  

The amending order also includes a number of other minor technical amendments to the 2015 Order.

The change to the legislation follows a review carried out by the Department for Infrastructure in 2022, which was backed-up by subsequent reports by the Northern Ireland Audit Office and the Public Accounts Committee.

Infrastructure minister John O’Dowd said: “This move is designed to improve planning performance with better quality applications entering the system, resulting in shorter processing times, more efficient consultee responses and quicker planning decisions. 

“I am committed to improving the planning process and these legislative amendments have been introduced as a result of the Department’s Planning Improvement Programme which is aimed at creating an efficient, effective and equitable planning system trusted to deliver high quality, sustainable, inclusive and healthy places.”

The amendments will introduce new powers to enable councils to prepare and publish planning application validation checklists. The validation checklists will help inform applicants on the level and type of information required to be submitted along with their planning application.

The current minimum statutory requirements remain unchanged, however, the new lists will set out the additional supporting information required to accompany different types of planning applications, specific and proportionate to the type of development proposed, including its nature, scale and location.

Planning applications will now only be considered valid when they comply with all the information requirements contained in a council’s published checklist.