Planning Authority Performance Statistics 2013/14

14. Annex

14.1 Processing Agreements by Planning Authority

Almost half of planning authorities used processing agreements in 2013/14 and City of Edinburgh, with 45 processing agreements, had a share of over one third of these agreements.

Loch Lomond & The Trossachs National Park reported that the failure of some applicants to submit required information on time affected the success rate for their processing agreements. However, after adjustments to procedures to tackle this issue, results for the most recent quarter have improved.

Table 7: Processing Agreements by Planning Authority, 2013/14

	Number of decisions, 2013/14					Overall percentage within agreed timescales
Planning Authority	Major Developments	Local Developments	EIA Developments	Other Consents	Total number of decisions
Aberdeen City	1	1	0	0	2	100.0%
Angus	2	0	0	0	2	100.0%
Argyll & Bute	1	4	0	0	5	100.0%
Cairngorms NP	0	1	0	0	1	0.0%
Dumfries & Galloway	1	0	0	0	1	100.0%
Dundee City	2	0	0	0	2	100.0%
East Dunbartonshire	0	0	0	1	1	100.0%
Edinburgh, City of	32	11	1	1	45	82.2%
Fife	0	1	0	0	1	100.0%
Glasgow City	0	11	0	5	16	100.0%
Highland	18	2	0	0	20	95.0%
Loch Lomond & The Trossachs NP	0	21	0	2	23	52.2%
Renfrewshire	2	1	0	0	3	100.0%
South Ayrshire	2	0	0	0	2	100.0%
Stirling	0	1	0	0	1	0.0%
SCOTLAND	61	54	1	9	125	82.4%

14.2 Stopping the Clock

In some cases it is appropriate to remove a length of time from the total decision time. We have called this process of removing a specific length of time "stopping the clock". This should not be used for every application; it is about reasonably adjusting the data to produce more accurate and relevant performance statistics that would otherwise have been skewed by extreme cases of delay outwith the planning authority's control.

For the year 2013/14 there were thirty local authorities who gave details for a total of 766 applications where the clock was stopped. This compares with 264 applications in the previous year and this improvement in reporting will have an influence on average decision times. The table below shows the number of applications where the clock has been stopped by planning authority.

Table 8: Clock stops by planning authority

Planning Authority	2013/14		2012/13
	Number of Applications	Average weeks removed from decision time	Number of Applications	Average weeks removed from decision time
Aberdeen City	0	-	0	-
Aberdeenshire	0	-	0	-
Angus	55	25.4	21	44.7
Argyll & Bute	28	45.2	23	31.9
Cairngorms	12	31.6	2	61.2
Clackmannanshire	0	-	0	-
Dumfries & Galloway	37	24.1	5	181.0
Dundee City	19	68.3	5	50.0
East Ayrshire	22	12.5	7	138.7
East Dunbartonshire	0	-	0	-
East Lothian	2	167.1	0	-
East Renfrewshire	20	14.5	1	36.6
Edinburgh, City of	25	56.1	22	43.9
Eilean Siar	4	24.3	7	23.6
Falkirk	54	22.9	20	23.5
Fife	37	22.8	5	99.9
Glasgow City	32	130.1	2	138.9
Highland	38	65.1	49	96.4
Inverclyde	20	24.3	3	80.0
Loch Lomond	27	38.0	20	35.4
Midlothian	1	86.9	0	-
Moray	3	33.8	0	-
North Ayrshire	17	59.3	8	124.1
North Lanarkshire	46	38.7	25	44.2
Orkney Islands	19	77.3	4	97.3
Perth & Kinross	99	49.0	3	29.1
Renfrewshire	6	28.5	0	-
Scottish Borders	30	121.3	3	83.7
Shetland Islands	26	7.3	12	30.0
South Ayrshire	11	81.7	6	78.2
South Lanarkshire	18	33.3	9	107.9
Stirling	4	137.2	2	86.5
West Dunbartonshire	3	16.8	0	-
West Lothian	51	31.4	0	-
Grand Total	766	45.5	264	63.7

Planning authorities that have not stopped the clock on any of their applications in 2013/14 are Aberdeen City, Aberdeenshire, Clackmannanshire and East Dunbartonshire. Average decision times for these local authorities may be higher than otherwise, and higher than those authorities who are able to report delays in decision making.

The following table gives an analysis of applications where the clock has been stopped by development type.

Table 9: Clock stops by development type

Development Type	2013/14		2012/13
	Number of Applications	Average weeks removed from decision time	Number of Applications	Average weeks removed from decision time
Local Developments
Householder developments	85	16.8	18	29.7
Minerals - Local	2	128.6	1	83.4
Housing - Local	288	55.5	112	59.5
Business and industry - Local	50	29.2	12	96.7
Waste Management - Local	3	95.3	0	-
Electricity Generation - Local	60	24.1	26	36.9
Marine Finfish Farming - Local	3	4.3	1	11.0
Marine Shellfish farming - Local	1	15.4	1	115.3
Other developments - Local	113	27.7	41	37.0
Telecommunications	1	7.3	0	-
AMSCs (under 2 months)	21	41.5	0	-
Local Developments - TOTAL	627	39.7	212	52.1
Major Developments
Minerals - Major	3	62.9	2	447.9
Housing - Major	38	118.7	15	196.9
Business and industry - Major	4	110.5	0	-
Electricity Generation - Major	2	40.5	5	102.2
Other developments - Major	15	105.5	2	87.1
Major Developments - TOTAL	62	109.7	24	188.9
Other Consents
Listed bldg.+con.area consents	48	42.2	17	23.4
Advertisements	5	83.2	1	41.1
Hazardous substances consents	10	14.4	2	9.6
Other consents and certificates	4	84.8	2	243.6
Other Consents - TOTAL	67	43.7	22	42.9
Local with EIA
Business and industry - Local (with EIA)	0	-	1	107.0
Electricity Generation - Local (with EIA)	7	22.8	5	35.7
Marine Finfish Farming - Local (with EIA)	2	36.1	0	-
Other developments - Local (with EIA)	1	10.0	0	-
Local with EIA - TOTAL	10	24.2	6	47.6
Overall Total	766	45.5	264	63.7

For both 2013/14 and 2012/13, local housing developments have the most applications where the clock has been stopped, with over a year on average removed from decision times. In 2013/14 this represented almost 5% of all applications for local housing developments. There are a variety of reasons why the clock is stopped but are often due to delays in concluding legal agreements and waiting for the applicant to sign a planning obligation. Other reasons include site survey required in relation to European protected species that must await a particular season, external consultants delay or awaiting advert fees to be paid.

Stop the clock advice has been issued to planning authorities to help with decisions for stopping the clock and is available at;
http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Statistics/Browse/Planning/DataSupplierArea

14.3 Planning Performance Guidance

Detailed guidance is available to planning authorities to help with submission of quarterly data. This can be found here:
http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Statistics/Browse/Planning/DataSupplierArea

14.4 Calculation of cut-off date for 2 month target

Months are measured from a specific day in one month until the day with the preceding date in the following or subsequent months. Further guidelines on how this is calculated can be found here:
http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Statistics/Browse/Planning/DataSupplierArea.

14.5 Revisions

The revisions policy for planning performance statistics has been developed in accordance with the UK Statistics Authority Code of practice for Official Statistics and further details are available at:
http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Statistics/Browse/Planning/Revisions

During the analysis of annual figures for 2013/14 there have been a very small number of changes to previously published quarterly data, which have been incorporated into annual summaries.

The quarterly revisions have been footnoted in the latest publication;
Planning Authority Performance Statistics 2013/14 Quarter 4

14.6 Uses of the Statistics

The key objective of the statistics is to allow Scottish Government and the planning authorities to monitor the performance of planning authorities in the timeliness of deciding planning applications. The statistics monitor the impact of the new development management system, part of the modernising planning agenda, which was implemented on 3^rd August 2009. These statistics also feed into the evidence used in the territorial liaison meetings between Scottish Government Department for Built Environment officials and planning authorities. Further details are available at:
http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Statistics/Browse/Planning/DataUses

14.7 Statistics for other UK countries

Information and statistics on planning applications for the other UK countries can be accessed at the following links:

England: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/planning-applications-in-england-january-to-march-2014

Wales: http://wales.gov.uk/topics/planning/planningstats/?lang=en

Northern Ireland: http://www.planningni.gov.uk/index/tools/about-statistics.htm