Part 13: General Schedule 7: Plan making Section 15J: Joint committees Effect
As under former section 29 of the Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act 2004 , section 15J(1) permits one or more local planning authorities to agree with one or more county councils to establish a joint committee to become the local planning authority for the area set out in the agreement and for the purposes specified.
	Subsections (2) to (5) broadly replicate former powers for the Secretary of State to constitute a joint committee to be the local planning authority for the area by regulations and set out what the regulations must or may do. They must set out the local planning authorities and county councils that will make up the joint committee (the "constituent authorities"). They may also set out other matters which the Secretary of State considers are necessary or expedient for the joint committee to carry out its functions, which might include provisions corresponding to relevant provisions in the Local Government Act 1972, applying other relevant legislation that may be appropriate, or modifications as to how Part 2 of the Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act 2004 is applied in relation to the joint committee.
	Subsection (6) sets out that if regulations relating to a joint committee are annulled by a resolution of either House of Parliament, the joint committee will cease to exist from the date of that resolution. From that date, all local planning authorities that were once a member of the joint committee must carry out the functions of a local planning authority on their own and must update their local plan timetable accordingly.
	Under subsection (7), this section does not confer on a local planning authority constituted by virtue of regulations under this section any function under section 13 or 14 of Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act 2004 (survey of area).
	Subsection (8) provides that this section (i.e. 15J) and section 15JA are subject to the requirement in section 15C(2). This permits only one local plan to have effect in a local planning authority’s area at any one time.
	Subsection (9) requires that if the joint committee adopts a local plan or supplementary plan, the policies contained therein apply across all of the constituent authorities which are local planning authorities.
	Subsections (10) and (11) clarify that references to a local planning authority’s local plan timetable, local plan or supplementary plan must be construed as including references to the timetable or plan of the joint committee, as far as relates to any planning function conferred.