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Pre Application Consultation Minister Response

Letter from the Minister for Public Finance, Planning and Community Wealth regarding Pre Application Consultations, 22 September 2021

Dear Stuart

Thank you for your letter of 10 September, on behalf of the Delegated Powers and Law Reform Committee, regarding the recent Scottish Statutory Instruments on pre-application consultation (PAC) requirements, namely:

Planning (Scotland) Act 2019 (Commencement No. 6 and Transitional Provision) Amendment Regulations 2021 (SSI 2021/291 (C.16))

Town and Country Planning (Miscellaneous Temporary Modifications) (Coronavirus) (Scotland) Regulations 2021 (SSI 2021/292)

The Committee’s first query relates to the continued suspension of the requirement for a public event as part of PAC. I should emphasise that in this case the regulations do not restrict PAC public events, but suspend the statutory requirement to hold them. It remains open to a prospective applicant to choose to hold a public event as part of PAC, or a planning authority to require one in individual cases, provided the event complied with any public health requirements in place at the time.

Whilst progress on a return to normality continues, there is no room for complacency, particularly when the health service is under so much pressure from Covid. If we start to see evidence of a substantial increase in serious illness, we cannot rule out having to re-impose some restrictions. As we move into autumn and winter, there continues to be a real risk that cases will rise again. Targeted and proportionate restrictions are being kept in reserve as an option for rapid deployment, should that be judged necessary and appropriate.

Given this position, the intention with these regulations is to avoid re-introducing requirements that may not be able to be met. This could introduce additional procedural uncertainty and/or costs that could affect the flow of development proposals and planning applications, at a time when the Scottish Government is seeking to support economic recovery from the pandemic. Further discussion in this regard is included in the policy note which accompanied the regulations. The policy note also sets out the reasons for postponing changes to PAC requirements, which include a requirement for an additional public event.

With regard to evaluation of online consultation, we have not done a systematic evaluation of such mechanisms in planning.

Our 2020 consultation on the changes to PAC did seek people’s views on the use of online measures in PAC during the Coronavirus arrangements. At that time, online PAC experiences were limited, though people commented on their wider experiences of online engagement. The feedback, as described in the analysis of responses, indicated mixed views, with many positive views, but also those with concerns and poorer experiences – See Chapter 3, Section 3.2 for discussion.

With regard to local government services more generally, the Accounts Commission’s (prepared by Audit Scotland) Local Government in Scotland 2021 Overview report referred quite positively to councils’ use of digital technology to support changes to service delivery, and their governance arrangements (pages 6, 8, 41 and 42). It encourages them to consolidate and build on the factors that allowed this level of change and innovation.

I hope this reply is helpful. I have copied it to the Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee as lead Committee on the instruments in question.

Yours sincerely

Tom Arthur