Planning Permission: Judicial Review
The question
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether he plans to legislate to limit the number of applications for permission to seek judicial review in relation to a single planning decision.
Answered by Ministry of Justice
The Government is committed to ensuring the public can continue to challenge the lawfulness of planning decisions while making sure the process is efficient, robust and proportionate.
The Government’s reforms to judicial review are intended to streamline and expedite the judicial review process, to limit the negative impacts of judicial reviews which are totally without merit. The reforms are not designed to restrict or prevent legitimate challenges from being brought.
In 2025, we legislated in the Planning and Infrastructure Act to limit meritless legal challenges against Nationally Significant Infrastructure Projects to one judicial review attempt, alongside procedural reforms with the judiciary to speed cases up, ensuring weak claims cannot delay projects while genuine challenges are heard quickly. We have also committed to extending these judicial review changes to nuclear site licensing and permitting decisions to ensure timely delivery of critical new nuclear projects to support both net-zero targets and economic growth.
On 16 July 2026, we launched a consultation seeking views on whether these changes should be extended to other planning regimes in England and Wales, in particular, the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 and the Transport and Works Act 1992. This consultation closed on 27 August 2026, and we are currently in the process of reviewing the responses.
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