A large proportion of our resources is taken up by work on local authority development plan inquiries. Table 2 shows the number of inquiries opened in England and Wales over the last three years.

Table 2: Summary

Year	Inquiries Opened	Reports Issued	In hand at end of year
1998-1999	38	41	34
1999-2000	36	38	42
2000-2001	28	32	51

Year

Inquiries

Opened

Reports

Issued

In hand at end

of year

1998-1999

1999-2000

2000-2001

The Ministerial target for development plan work for 2000-2001 was to:

"provide an Inspector for development plan inquiries in at least 90% of cases on the date requested by a local authority, provided that the objection period has ended and at least 6 months' notice has been given"

"deliver 90% of Inspectors' reports on development plan inquiries to local authorities according to timescales agreed under service agreements".

Both parts of the target were met in full.