Providing facilities and venues for Hearings and Inquiries

Under the Disability Discrimination Act 1995, both the Planning Inspectorate and Local Planning Authorities have a duty to ensure facilities are provided to anyone with disabilities when arranging venues for Hearings and Inquiries.

Unfortunately, on a few occasions we have scheduled Public Inquiries in venues that have not met these requirements (especially induction loops) and were unaware of this until the hearing commenced.

We would therefore be grateful for your support in ensuring we meet this standard and would like to draw your attention to requirements explained in 'The Venue and Facilities for Public Inquiries and Hearings' guidance.

We would be grateful if you would please pay particular attention to the Disability Access Advice section of the guidance note.