Planning system - mandatory training for elected members: consultation

4. Who should undertake the training?

4.1 The Planning (Scotland) Act 2019 states that a 'member of a planning authority', in this case an elected member, 'who has not fulfilled the specified training requirements', will be, 'prohibited from exercising any of the authority's specified functions on their behalf, or being involved in exercising any of those functions on the authority's behalf as a member of a committee or any other body'.

4.2 Elected members undertake various functions within the planning system which can include the determination of planning applications, being involved in the development plan process and other development management functions. Based on the findings from the stakeholder workshops, improving consistency with decision-making, specifically the determination of planning applications was highlighted as the most important issue. Therefore, we consider that elected members should be prohibited from taking decisions on planning applications as submitted under the Planning Acts until training requirements have been fulfilled. Planning applications include applications for planning permission, planning permission in principle, applications for prior approval, applications to vary or discharge matters reserved by planning conditions, certificate of lawful use or development, all consent applications and tree work preservation order applications.

4.3 Excluding those applications which are determined by planning officers, planning applications are predominantly determined by elected members at planning committees. There are, however, instances where a planning application is to be determined by Full Council or a Local Review Body. For example, an application could be determined at Full Council where a local authority's scheme of delegation states that certain triggers are met, such as the number of representations made or an objection made by a statutory consultee or other council department. We propose that all elected members should be prohibited from being involved in the determination of any planning applications, as a member of a planning committee, Full Council or any Local Review Body until the training requirements have been fulfilled.

4.4 It is possible that a situation may arise where not enough elected members have fulfilled their training requirements and the council would not have the minimum number of elected members required to allow a vote to take place on a planning application. Although we do not anticipate this occurring in practice, we would expect authorities to ensure enough elected members have fulfilled the training requirements before a planning decision is to be taken at planning committee, Full Council or through a Local Review Body.

Question 1: Should the determination of planning applications be the only specified function that elected members are prohibited from doing until training requirements have been completed?

[yes/no]

Please add any comment in support of your answer

4.5 Elected members on a planning committee will generally be involved on a regular basis in determining planning applications and would be involved in the decision-making process for a broad range of application types. However, elected members who sit on Full Council or Local Review Body may only take a decision on a planning application infrequently. To account for the different levels of involvement with determining planning applications, the training requirements for elected members could vary depending on whether the elected member sits on the Full Council, Local Review Body or planning committee.

4.6 For example, the training for elected members on Full Council or Local Review Body could be delivered at a high level whilst the training for planning committee members could be more in-depth. In each case, training requirements will need to be fulfilled by an elected member before they can take a decision on a planning application either through a planning committee, Full Council or any other body.

Question 2: Should the training requirements vary for elected members depending on whether they participate in a planning committee, Full Council or Local Review Body?

[yes/no]

Please add any comment in support of your answer