Planning Permission: Judicial Review
The question
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to the Government's press release entitled Crackdown on baseless legal claims to get Britain building, published on 16 July 2026, what evidence the Department has relied upon in concluding that meritless legal challenges are causing significant delays to major developments.
Answered by Ministry of Justice
In 2024, Lord Banner KC published an independent review into legal challenges against Nationally Significant Infrastructure Projects (NSIPs). This review examined available case data and drew on extensive engagement with stakeholders across the NSIP regime, including government departments, developers, environmental organisations, representative bodies, legal practitioners and members of the judiciary.
Lord Banner's review examined concerns that unmeritorious legal challenges to Development Consent Orders were causing significant undue delay to the delivery of NSIPs. It found that, whilst relatively few legal challenges to NSIPs were successful in overturning development consent decisions, claims took around 16 months on average to reach a conclusion. The review concluded that this created a significant period of uncertainty for projects, with associated cost implications and delivery risks.
As a result of this review, in 2025, the Government issued a call for evidence on Lord Banner’s findings and recommendations to gather a broader evidence base before taking decisions on reform. Following consideration of the responses received, the Government implemented a package of legislative and procedural reforms for NSIP judicial reviews through the Planning and Infrastructure Act 2025 and associated changes to the Civil Procedure Rules.
Separately, the 2025 Nuclear Regulatory Review identified concerns that repetitive or unmeritorious legal challenges can delay nuclear developments and found that repeated challenges across planning, licensing and permitting stages can create uncertainty, increase costs and risk undermining timely project delivery. As part of its response to the Review, the Government committed to extending the NSIP judicial review reforms to nuclear site licensing and environmental permitting decisions, and also to consulting on whether these reforms should be extended to other planning regimes.
On 16 July 2026, the Ministry of Justice launched a consultation which sought evidence on the potential benefits, risks and practical implications of reform in other planning regimes. The consultation closed on 27 August 2026 and the Department is currently considering the responses received, including evidence on whether delays associated with legal challenges are occurring in other planning regimes.
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