Applications under the Electricity Act 1989: fees charged

Impact Assessments

Partial Business and Regulatory Impact Assessment

A Partial Business and Regulatory Impact Assessment is included at Annex 2. The responses to this consultation will be used to inform an updated Business and Regulatory Impact Assessment which would be prepared in support of any legislative amendments to change fees.

Equalities Impact Assessment

After considering the requirement for Equalities Impact Assessment it was concluded that there would be no disadvantage created between equalities groups and no assessment was necessary.

Footnote – Local Planning Authorities

Planning authorities within whose borders proposed developments are located are statutory consultees in our application process. For onshore applications the cost to planning authorities of undertaking their statutory function in the consultation process is included in the local authority settlement. At present, in a voluntary arrangement entirely separate from the charging of fees under the Electricity (Applications for Consent) Regulations 1990, we allocate a sum equivalent to two thirds of the application fees received by Ministers for EIA developments to the relevant planning authorities to provide additional assistance in the discharge of their functions.

The proposed fee increases outlined in this paper reflect costs to Scottish Ministers and assume planning authorities will not receive any additional money following the implementation of the revised fees. Ministers intend to maintain the existing voluntary payments at current absolute values and they will cease to be the equivalent of two-thirds of the increased application fees Ministers plan to introduce.