Mr Patsy McGlone (Mid Ulster): To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs what progress reports have been undertaken by his Department on the recommendations of the Mills Report; and when they will be published.
Minister of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs: I can confirm that a Management Action Plan containing 25 actions was developed in order to implement the 14 recommendations presented in the Mills Report (2013).
An Internal Audit review, completed in March 2015, concluded that from 25 actions on the Management Action Plan, 9 were fully implemented and 16 were partially implemented. Internal Audit did a further review in 2017/18 and reported its findings in an Internal Audit Report on the 8th March 2018. The reported stated that all the recommendations in the Mills Report within DAERA’s control have been implemented. The only outstanding recommendation from the Mills Report is Recommendation 9 which relates to retrospective planning permissions that was transferred to DfI in 2015 along with the planning function. Both Audit reports are published and are available to view at: https://www.daera-ni.gov.uk/publications/copy-2015-internal-audit-report-implementation-recommendations-2013-mills-report
ENDS
Your MLA 