Investing in planning - resourcing Scotland's planning system: consultation

Annex A - Summary of Consultation Questions

Question 1: Which assessments might benefit most from improved proportionality?

Question 2: To what extent do you agree that processing agreements are an effective tool for creating certainty in planning decision making timescales?

Strongly agree | Partially agree | No view | Partially disagree | Strongly disagree

Please explain your view

Question 3: Do you consider that current resourcing issues are impacting on the use of processing agreements?

Strongly agree | Partially agree | No view | Partially disagree | Strongly disagree

Please explain your view

Question 4: Would you be prepared to pay a discretionary fee to enter into a processing agreement?

Yes | No view | No

Please explain your view

Question 5: What additional actions can we take to improve certainty in the planning process?

Question 6: Do you have further ideas on opportunities for streamlining, alignment or standardisation?

Question 7: Are there any skills actions which you think should be prioritised?

Question 8: Are there any skills actions not identified which you think would make a significant impact?

Question 9: Do you think that the concept of a ‘planning hub’, modelled on the Building Standards Hub would support authorities and deliver improvement in the system?

Strongly agree | Partially agree | No view | Partially disagree | Strongly disagree

Please explain your view

Question 10: Are there other ways a hub could add value and provide support in the short and longer term?

Question 11: Which of the options do you think is most suitable, and why?

i. Within Scottish Government

ii. Within public organisation

iii. Within a host authority

iv. Other

v. No view

Question 12: How do you think a Planning Hub could be resourced?

Question 13: Do you agree that planning fees should increase annually in line with inflation?

Strongly agree | Partially agree | No view | Partially disagree | Strongly disagree

Please explain your view

Question 14: Is a calculation based on the 12 month Consumer Price Index the most appropriate mechanism?

Strongly agree | Partially agree | No view | Partially disagree | Strongly disagree

Please explain your view

Question 15: Should an annual inflationary increase apply to:

i. Individual fees and increments

ii. Individual fees, increments and maximums

iii. No view

Question 16: What would be your preferred approach to how planning fees are set in the future?

Question 17: Are there key principles which should be set out in the event that fee setting powers are devolved to planning authorities?

Question 18: What other processes that support the determination of a planning application could authorities be given powers to charge at their discretion?

Question 19: Do think the circumstances where a refund can be requested is set out as part of any published information regarding the introduction of a discretionary charge?

Question 20: Do you agree with the principle that authorities should have discretionary powers to increase fees for a proposal on an unallocated site within the development plan?

Strongly agree | Partially agree | No view | Partially disagree | Strongly disagree

Please explain your view

Question 21: Do you agree that planning authorities should be able to recoup the costs of preparing a Masterplan Consent Area through discretionary charging?

Strongly agree | Partially agree | No view | Partially disagree | Strongly disagree

Please explain your view

Question 22: Do you agree with the types of appeals that should incur a fee?

Yes | no view | No

Please explain your view

Question 23: Do you agree that setting the fee for applying to appeal the refusal of planning permission (to either DPEA or the planning authority) is set as a percentage of the original planning application fee?

Strongly agree | Partially agree | No view | Partially disagree | Strongly disagree

Please explain your view

Question 24: If a percentage of fee approach to appeal charging was considered most appropriate, what level do you consider would be most appropriate to reflect volume of work by DPEA or the LRB?

10% | 20% | 30% | 40% | No view | Other

Please explain your view

Question 25: Do you agree that an authority should consider waiving or reducing an appeal fee where they have offered such a waiver on the related planning application?

Strongly agree | Partially agree | No view | Partially disagree | Strongly disagree

Please explain your view

Question 26: Do you have views on how a service charge for applying for planning permission or a building warrant online could be applied?

Question 27: What other options are there to resource the operation and improvement of the eDevelopment service?

Question 28: Should the current threshold of 50MW for applications for electricity generation which are to be determined by authorities be altered?

Yes | No view | No

Please explain your view

Question 29: Should different thresholds apply to different types of generating stations?

Yes | No view | No

Please explain your view

Question 30: What would be the resource implications of increasing the threshold for the determination of applications for onshore electricity generating stations?

Question 31: If Scottish Government were to make a voluntary contribution equivalent to a percentage of the offshore electricity fee to authorities, what level of contribution would be appropriate to support some recovery of costs? Please provide justification for your answer.

Question 32: Should we introduce a new category of development for applications for hydrogen projects? If so, how should these fees be set/calculated?

Yes | No view | No

Please explain your view

Question 33: Are there different considerations for hydrogen production when compared with proposals which are concerned only with storage and distribution?

Yes | No view | No

Please explain your view

Question 34: Do you agree that the standard £100 which applies to most prior notification and approval applications is appropriate?

Yes | No view | No

Please explain your view

Question 35: Are there particular PDR classes where you think the current fee should be amended? If so, please explain why that is considered to be the case.

Question 36: Would a reduction of the current fee (£200 per 0.1 hectare) be an appropriate approach to resolving this issue?

Question 37: What would you consider to be a reasonable fee for shellfish farm applications? (Please elaborate on your answer using an average shellfish farm development (5 x 220m twin-headline longlines at 20m spacing with 30m end moorings) as an example.)

Question 38: Which proposal would you most like to see implemented?

Please explain the reason for your answer.

Question 39: Do you have other comments on the cumulative impact of the proposals?

Question 40: Do you have other ideas to help resource the planning system? Please set out how you think the proposal could be resourced.

Question 41: Please provide any information on the potential impacts of our proposals to assist with preparation of the following impact assessments:

Business and Regulatory Impact Assessment

Equality Impact Assessment

Islands Communities Impact Assessment

Children’s Rights and Wellbeing Impact Assessment

Fairer Scotland Duty

Strategic Environmental Assessment