On Wednesday 12 February, Bridget Rosewell, CBE, together with the Planning Inspectorate and the Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) hosted an event to mark one year since publication of the ‘Rosewell Review’. The Review included 22 recommendations to speed up decision times for planning inquiry appeals and make the process more proportionate and predictable.

Bridget Rosewell, CBE, chaired the event attended by around 50 professionals representing a broad mix of appellants, legal professionals, local planning authorities, statutory and other interested parties as well as Planning Inspectorate and MHCLG staff. The session reflected on how the changes are working in practice, what can be improved further and what has been learnt so far.

Opening the event, Simon Gallagher, Director of Planning at MHCLG, described how impressed the ministry is with the amount of progress made in implementing the report over the past year and the substantial difference it has made. He commented “What our Department is particularly concerned about is the unnecessarily long time that appeals took to progress through inquiry previously. This time amounts to costs for all parties and the Inspectorate and uncertainty for communities. By now running this process efficiently, effectively and fairly we are able to reduce the risk for communities and for development in this country.”

Sarah Richards, CEO of the Planning Inspectorate, commented “The event was a great opportunity to celebrate the progress made to date and to learn about where we should focus our improvement efforts next. The Planning Inspectorate is committed to continuously improving the process and listen to those with first-hand experience. The new process has more than halved receipt to decision time frames. Whilst many found adjusting to the faster turn-around times challenging, people like the greater certainty and efficiency of the ‘Rosewell’ timings. We also know that we can and will improve further to deliver the remaining recommendations.” Sarah adds, “We are also taking the learnings from the Rosewell Review and are starting to apply these principles to other areas of our casework. This underlines how practical and useful this piece of work from Bridget Rosewell is.”

Out of the 22 recommendations, the Planning Inspectorate has so far implemented 16 which includes streamlining the process, reforming the statement of case, earlier inspector engagement and overhauling statements of common ground. The remaining six recommendations are currently in progress, including developments to the new digital portal, reviewing costs of the inquiry venue and improving technology such as exploring the use of live streaming.

During the event, delegates offered views on their experiences with cases handled in the Rosewell way. Many delegates highlighted how much they welcomed the greater certainty around event timings and receiving a timely decision and that the importance of this can hardly be overestimated. There seemed also general positivity about the early inspector engagement helping all parties in being more focused and efficient in their preparation for a case. At the same time further scope for improvement was identified regarding the consistency of inspectors deciding how to hear a case, in particular regarding the extent of cross-examination considered appropriate. There was similarly a plea for further and faster moves towards more electronic working on inquiry appeals.

See the recordings of the presentations.

The Prime Minister spoke to President Xi of China this morning.

He offered his sympathies for those affected by the outbreak of coronavirus in China. President Xi thanked the UK for its support and in particular welcomed the donation of vital medical equipment to China.

The Prime Minister and President agreed on the importance of the UK-China relationship and resolved to work together across a range of issues including strengthening the economic partnership, to benefit the people of both China and the UK.

Ahead of COP26 in Glasgow and the Convention on Biological Diversity Summit in China, the two leaders resolved to work closely together on the issue of climate change. They agreed that biodiversity and climate change are two sides of the same coin and must be addressed in tandem if we’re to protect the planet for future generations.

Published 18 February 2020

At Companies House, we’re committed to making sure that our customers can communicate with us in Welsh if they choose to do so.

We offer a Welsh service so our customers can talk to us or email us in Welsh, and any company registered in Wales can sign up for this service. If you’ve contacted us in Welsh, we’ll always reply in Welsh.

We also post Welsh content on our social media channels, including videos with Welsh subtitles on YouTube. You can ask us a question in Welsh on all our social media channels. Again, we’ll always reply to you in Welsh.

You can incorporate a company in Welsh, and you can do this online. We’ll also send you a bilingual certificate of incorporation. You can also file your accounts online in Welsh.

If you need to send us a paper form or file your accounts on paper, you can do this in Welsh. All of our most common filings are available as bilingual forms.

We’re also looking for new members to join our user panel, and we would welcome applications from Welsh speakers. Our user panel helps us to understand how our customers use our digital services, and we want to make sure we’ve got a broad range of users who are willing to give feedback on their experiences with our Welsh language services.

The Prime Minister has appointed Alok Sharma as the COP26 President, alongside his new position as Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS).

As former Secretary of State at the Department for International Development, Mr Sharma’s experience in international diplomacy will be key in driving ambitious climate action from countries attending the conference in Glasgow this November.

Yesterday, Mr Sharma began his first full week in the new role with a meeting with UN Deputy Secretary General Amina Mohammed, where they committed to working closely together towards a successful, globally ambitious summit later this year in Glasgow.

COP26 President Alok Sharma said:

It is a great honour to take on the role of COP26 President. I have started working with my new team ahead of the summit in Glasgow this November, where we aim to speed up the global journey to net zero carbon.

We will be building on efforts to urge all countries to bring forward ambitious plans to curb their emissions ahead of the event itself.

It is vital everyone comes together to deliver the change needed to tackle climate change and protect our planet.

COP26 will be the largest summit the UK has ever hosted, with over 30,000 delegates, including world leaders, experts, campaigners and government officials.

Bydd diogelwch, cyfleoedd i gymunedau, ac amddiffyn yr amgylchedd yn ystyriaethau allweddol wrth werthuso safleoedd i sicrhau eu bod yn addas ar gyfer Cyfleuster Gwaredu Daearegol (GDF).

Heddiw cyhoeddodd Radioactive Waste Management (RWM) ei ddull o werthuso safle GDF yng Nghymru a Lloegr, yn dilyn ymgynghoriad cenedlaethol cynhwysfawr ac agored.

Dim ond gyda chymuned barod a safle addas y bydd cyfleuster o’r fath yn cael ei adeiladu. Bydd ‘ffactorau lleoli’, sy’n cael eu harwain gan bolisi a deddfwriaeth y llywodraeth, yn sail i’r sgyrsiau y bydd RWM yn eu cael gyda chymunedau ac wrth werthuso pa mor addas yw safleoedd.

Mae chwe ffactor lleoli, sy’n mynd i’r afael â’r canlynol:

• Diogelwch – mae’n rhaid i reoleiddwyr annibynnol sicrhau ac ardystio diogelwch. Ni fydd GDF yn cael ei adeiladu oni bai ein bod ni, a nhw, yn fodlon ei fod yn ddiogel.

• Cymuned – mae cymunedau wrth galon y broses o leoli GDF, a bydd RWM yn ystyried cyfleoedd cymdeithasol ac economaidd, llesiant cymunedol, a sut gall GDF fod yn gyson â gweledigaeth y gymuned sy’n cynnig lleoliad ar gyfer y cyfleuster.

• Amgylchedd – mae adeiladu GDF yn ymdrech fawr i amddiffyn yr amgylchedd. Bydd angen i’r broses o adeiladu GDF fodloni gofynion rheoleiddio annibynnol.

• Dichonoldeb peirianyddol – bydd angen i RWM sicrhau bod lle i ddylunio’n gynaliadwy a bod modd adeiladu a gweithredu GDF mewn lleoliad.

• Trafnidiaeth – cludo gwastraff, pobl a deunyddiau eraill yn ddiogel.

• Gwerth am arian – mae dyletswydd ar RWM i sicrhau gwerth am arian.

Dywedodd Prif Weithredwr RWM, Karen Wheeler:

“GDF yw’r ateb tymor hir gorau ar gyfer rheoli gwastraff ymbelydrol etifeddol uwch ei actifedd yn ddiogel yn y DU.”

“Dim ond gyda chymuned barod a safle addas y bydd cyfleuster o’r fath yn cael ei adeiladu, felly mae’n bwysig bod cymunedau a’u cynrychiolwyr yn deall sut byddwn yn gwerthuso pa mor addas yw safle.”

“Mae’r dogfennau gwerthuso safle rydyn ni’n eu cyhoeddi heddiw yn nodi’r ‘ffactorau lleoli’ y byddwn yn eu defnyddio i asesu addasrwydd wrth i ni weithio gyda chymunedau sydd â diddordeb mewn archwilio manteision a goblygiadau cynnig lleoliad ar gyfer GDF.”