Delegated decisions

The Minister for Planning, the Planning Secretary and Independent Planning Commission have delegated their power to make a number of decisions to other bodies and various officers of the department.

The department has delegation to make decisions on:

• State significant development (SSD) applications, State significant infrastructure applications and other development applications where there are less than 50 unique objections, the local council has not objected and no relevant political donation disclosures have been made
• in-fill affordable housing SSD applications, where no relevant political donation disclosures have been made
• applications to modify State significant development, State significant infrastructure and other development applications where no relevant political donation disclosures have been made
• ‘Gateway’ decisions on local environmental plans (LEPs) – usually to decide whether the LEP can proceed to public exhibition
• approvals or refusals of LEPs.

Decisions on state significant development, state significant infrastructure, other development applications and modification applications, are available at Major Projects.

Decisions on LEPs are available from Planning Proposals Online. For all LEPs that have been formalised, visit NSW legislation.

• Instrument of Delegation (IPC) – signed 14 September 2011 (PDF, 96 KB) – Minister for Planning – this instrument delegates certain statutory functions of the Minister under the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act 1979 (EP&A Act) to the Independent Planning Commission (formerly the Planning Assessment Commission).
• Instrument of Delegation (DPHI) – signed 9 March 2022 (PDF, 180 KB) – Minister for Planning – this instrument delegates certain statutory functions of the Minister under the EP&A Act and the Environmental Planning and Assessment Regulation 2021 (EP&A Regulation) to the Department of Planning, Housing and Infrastructure (DPHI; formerly the Department of Planning and Environment) staff.
• Instrument of Delegation (DPHI) - signed 11 May 2022 (PDF, 396 KB) – Secretary, Department of Planning, Housing and Infrastructure – this instrument delegates certain statutory functions of the Secretary under the EP&A Act and the EP&A Regulation to DPHI staff.
• Instrument of Delegation (DPHI) – signed 14 June 2022 (PDF, 4.8 MB) – Independent Planning Commission – this instrument delegates specific  consent authority functions of the Commission under the EP&A Act and the EP&A Regulation to DPHI staff.
• Instrument of Delegation (In-fill Affordable Housing SSD) – signed 15 December 2024 (PDF, 172 KB) – Minister for Planning – this instrument delegates certain statutory functions of the Minister for in-fill affordable housing SSD under the EP&A Act and the EP&A Regulation to the DPHI staff.
• Instrument of Delegation (City of Sydney) – signed 15 December 2024 (PDF, 1.9 MB) – Minister for Planning – this instrument delegates certain statutory functions of the Minister for certain SSD under the EP&A Act and the EP&A Regulation to the City of Sydney.
• Instrument of Delegation (City of Sydney) – signed 17 December 2024 (PDF, 216 KB) – Secretary, Department of Planning, Housing and Infrastructure – this instrument delegates the certain statutory functions of the Secretary for certain SSD under the EP&A Act and the EP&A Regulation to the City of Sydney.
• Instrument of Delegation (Housing Delivery Authority) – signed 5 February 2025 (PDF, 384 KB) – Independent Planning Commission – this instrument delegates the Commission’s advisory function under 4.36(3) of the EP&A Act to the Housing Delivery Authority.

• Instrument of Delegation (DPHI) – signed 24 May 2022 (PDF, 735 KB) – Secretary, Department of Planning, Housing and Infrastructure (formerly the Department of Planning and Environment) – this instrument delegates the Secretary’s statutory functions with respect to written undertakings of the Secretary under the EP&A Act to DPHI staff.

• Local environmental plan decision delegations (PDF, 141 KB) from the Minister, dated 17 August 2021.
• Local environmental plan decision delegations (PDF, 1.3 MB) from the Secretary, dated 23 February 2023.

The Minister for Planning has consent authority functions for development in the Sydney Harbour Foreshores and Waterways Area under State Environmental Planning Policy (Biodiversity and Conservation) 2021. These functions are delegated to the relevant council or Transport for NSW.

Instrument of Delegation – signed 21 November 2022 (PDF, 502 KB) – Minister for Planning – this instrument delegates the Minister's consent authority functions under section 6.25 of State Environmental Planning Policy (Biodiversity and Conservation) 2021 to:

• the council for the local government area (LGA) where the proposed development is located or – if the development is to be carried out on land not within an LGA – to the council of the LGA nearest to the development site
• Transport for NSW.