Following a review by the NSW Productivity Commission, Planning Minister Rob Stokes said the Government would accept all the recommendations from the review, which would include raising the threshold for developments to be referred to the IPC.

There would need to be 50 "unique community objections", up from 25, for a project to be referred to the IPC.

The IPC would now be a decision-maker on controversial projects, and would not be "re-assessing the department's technical work", Mr Stokes said.

The NSW Minerals Council said it was pleased the IPC would be following the Planning Department's assessment of developments.

"The [review] recommends that the Department of Planning be primarily responsible for assessing project applications against the NSW Government's rules and policies," NSWMC CEO Stephen Gallilee said.

"This is welcome and long overdue.

"Limiting the IPC to a determination role, based on the department's assessment against NSW Government's rules and policies is also an important change.

"If properly implemented, this will be a significant improvement on previous arrangements, as will the proposed protocol for seeking policy clarity."

The new IPC would be accountable to the Planning Minister, and "responsible for delivering on the Government's agreed objectives and performance measures".

The job of implementing the changes has been given to acting PIC chair Peter Duncan, a former head of the Department of Premier and Cabinet who joined the IPC (then PAC) in 2017.

IPC Chair Mary O'Kane has been appointed to the inquiry into NSW bushfires. The IPC reforms will have been completed before she returns.