Development plan amendment regulations: consultation response summary

Executive Summary

The ability to make amendments to the development plan is vital and forms part of our wider work on planning reform and implementation of the Planning (Scotland) Act 2019 (the 2019 Act), which made changes to the Town and Country Planning (Scotland) Act 1997 (the 1997 Act).

The National Planning Framework (NPF) and the Local Development Plan (LDP) for each planning authority comprise the 'development plan.' Decisions on planning applications are to be made in accordance with the 'development plan' unless there are material considerations that indicate otherwise.

The 1997 Act, as amended by the 2019 Act, sets out the procedures for preparing NPF and LDPs. It also allows for NPF and LDPs to be amended, and for regulations to provide more detail about the amendment process. Regulations, also known as secondary legislation, are necessary to provide additional detail to the requirements set out in the Act (primary legislation).

We therefore consulted on the contents of future NPF and LDP amendment regulations, with the aim of being proportionate across both sets of regulation proposals. This was in light of the resource burden a full review of these documents would have, and as such we sought views on an amendment process which was responsive and streamlined, whilst balancing the need for due process (including appropriate justification and consultation on the proposed amendment).

With regards to making amendments to the NPF, our proposals sought to maintain consistency to the process for developing a new NPF in the level of parliamentary scrutiny, while streamlining the process through which the Scottish Government sought contributions and feedback on potential amendments.

There is a requirement in legislation for the amendment regulations to stipulate what would trigger a review of the NPF document as a whole i.e. representing a significant change to the document. As such, our proposals included a threshold for this trigger and invited discussions on this point.

In terms of amending LDPs, our proposals sought to make this a less burdensome task for planning authorities and significantly reduce the time it would take to make amendments when compared to preparing a full LDP (guidance suggests this is 3 to 4 years). In particular, we set out the expectation that amendments are not used for single site additions, but to reflect an arising local issue or ambition, or address local place-based matters.

Our consultation closed on 22 May 2024. We have taken account of all the responses received, including the analysis conducted in this summary report, and are using these to inform the development of the final regulations and accompanying guidance.

We expect the relevant regulations to be laid in parliament shortly, and for these to come into force before the end of 2024.