- Asked by: Patrick Harvie, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Green Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 11 December 2007
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Current Status:
Answered by John Swinney on 20 December 2007
To ask the Scottish Executive what criteria it uses to determine whether a planning application is of national significance.
Answer
It depends on the individualcircumstances of the case.
- Asked by: Patrick Harvie, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Green Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 11 December 2007
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Current Status:
Answered by John Swinney on 20 December 2007
To ask the Scottish Executive how many planning applications have been determined as being of national significance before a local planning decision was made; how many were so determined after planning consent had been granted by the local planning authority, and how many after planning consent had been refused by the local planning authority in each year since 1999.
Answer
Over the period 1 January 1999 to 31 December 2007, Scottish ministers called in and determined 250 planning applications where the planning authority had not issued a decision but was minded to grant planning consent subject to notification to the Scottish ministers. No planning applications have been called in by Scottish ministers after a decision notice was issued by a planning authority.
Where a planning application is refused by a planning authority the applicant has the right to appeal to Scottish ministers. Appeals are heard by an inquiry reporter. Most appeal decisions are delegated to reporters but in cases where the application is judged to be a matter of national concern Scottish ministers can recall the appeal case for their own determination. Ministers can accept or reject the reporter''s recommendation. The number of appeals recalled for determination by Scottish ministers over this period is 98.
A breakdown of the yearly figures for called in applications and recalled appeals is provided below:
| Year | No. of Called in Applications | No. of Appeals Recalled |
| 1999 | 44 | 11 |
| 2000 | 30 | 16 |
| 2001 | 41 | 12 |
| 2002 | 18 | 7 |
| 2003 | 23 | 11 |
| 2004 | 37 | 8 |
| 2005 | 21 | 15 |
| 2006 | 17 | 8 |
| 2007 | 19 | 10 |
| Total | 250 | 98 |
The following is the original answer (published on 20 December 2007); see below.
Since 1999 Scottish ministers have called in 380 planning applications and have recalled 287 planning appeals for their own determination.
- Asked by: Patrick Harvie, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Green Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 11 December 2007
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Current Status:
Answered by John Swinney on 20 December 2007
To ask the Scottish Executive how many planning applications it has called in for a decision by ministers after a local decision to refuse consent was made; how many of these were called in without an appeal by the developer, and how many were ultimately given planning consent by ministers in each year since 1999.
Answer
I refer the member to the answer to question S3W-7690 on 20 December 2007. All answers to written parliamentaryquestions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for whichcan be found at
http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.search.
- Asked by: Patrick Harvie, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Green Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 13 December 2007
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Current Status:
Answered by John Swinney on 20 December 2007
To ask the Scottish Executive which (a) ministers, (b) special advisers and (c) civil servants have spoken to journalists about the proposed development at the Menie Estate, Aberdeenshire, since September 2007, specifying in each case the relevant media outlets.
Answer
No records are keptof specific conversations between ministers, special advisers and civilservants with the media. However, I can confirm that communications officers onboth the Communications First Minister and Communications Finance desks have respondedto a range of media enquiries, as have media special advisers.
- Asked by: Patrick Harvie, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Green Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 03 December 2007
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Current Status:
Answered by Michael Russell on 19 December 2007
To ask the Scottish Executive how many of the strategies, plans or programmes that it has published have not been subjected to a strategic environmental assessment and what the reasons for the decision not to conduct a strategic environmental assessment were in each case.
Answer
The information requestedmay be divided into two specific categories under current Strategic EnvironmentalAssessment (SEA) legislation:
(a) Those strategies,plans and programmes to which the Environmental Assessment (Scotland) Act 2005 does not apply, and
(b) Those that havebeen pre-screened out because they have no or minimal effect in relation to theenvironment.
In relation to thosestrategies, plans and programmes that fall into “category a” this information isnot held centrally.
Those that fall into“category b” are entered onto the pre-screening register, which can be accessedon the Scottish Government internet site.
www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Environment/Pre-screening/Q/forceupdate/on.
- Asked by: Patrick Harvie, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Green Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 03 December 2007
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Current Status:
Answered by John Swinney on 17 December 2007
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it sought legal advice on the requirement to conduct a strategic environmental assessment on The Government Economic Strategy.
Answer
The practice of the Scottish Government is neither to confirm or deny whether legal advice has beenreceived on any issue.
- Asked by: Patrick Harvie, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Green Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 03 December 2007
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Current Status:
Answered by John Swinney on 17 December 2007
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it considers The Government Economic Strategy to be exempt from the provisions of the Environmental Assessment (Scotland) Act 2005 and, if so, under which section of the Act the exemption exists.
Answer
The strategy is notexempt from the provisions of the Environmental Assessment (Scotland) Act 2005.
- Asked by: Patrick Harvie, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Green Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 03 December 2007
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Current Status:
Answered by John Swinney on 17 December 2007
To ask the Scottish Executive who took the decision not to conduct a strategic environmental assessment on The Government Economic Strategy and when this decision was made.
Answer
Ministers consideredit more appropriate to focus Strategic Environmental Assessments on specific sub-strategiesand policies.
- Asked by: Patrick Harvie, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Green Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 23 October 2007
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Current Status:
Answered by Jim Mather on 6 November 2007
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it supports the changes proposed by the General Register Office for Scotland to the questions on religion in the 2011 census.
Answer
The Scottish Governmentis supportive of the importance of including some form of question on religion inthe 2011 Census. It recognises the strong level of support that was expressed byusers in response to the spring 2007 Census consultation for the exclusion of aquestion on religion of upbringing on the grounds that a question on current religionwould meet the majority of analysis needs.
- Asked by: Patrick Harvie, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Green Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 23 October 2007
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Current Status:
Answered by Jim Mather on 6 November 2007
To ask the Scottish Executive what input it has given, or intends to give, to the General Register Office for Scotland following the published analysis of responses to the Spring 2007 Census Consultation.
Answer
A series of informaldiscussions have been held with the General Register Office for Scotland (GROS)in response to the Census Consultation. Further input across a range of issues in relation tothe Census will be provided to the GROS over the coming months as part of theon-going consideration being given to the topics for inclusion in the 2011 Censusquestionnaire. Under current plans, a provisional decision on the topics to be includedwill be taken by GROS by March 2008. That decision, incorporating also any subsequentchanges resulting from further testing of question wording in a few cases, willbe presented to Parliament later in 2008 for final agreement.
