To ask the Minister for Infrastructure what action he is taking to ensure NI Water responds to planning consultations in a timely manner.

My department works with statutory planning consultees to help speed up responses to planning applications through the ongoing work of the Planning Statutory Consultee Forum which links statutory consultees with local planning authorities. NI Water is represented on, and participates in, this forum.

NI Water has returned 85% or more of their statutory responses within the 21-day target in four of the last five years and reported their best performance to date (97% of responses on time) in 2021-22 (the most recent available annual statistics).