The Town and Country Planning (National Planning Framework and Local Development Plan Amendment) (Scotland) Regulations 2024 - Impact Assessments

Introduction

Scotland’s planning system is plan-led. Development planning is required to manage the development and use of land in the long-term public interest. To achieve this, development should contribute to sustainable development and seek to achieve the national outcomes.

The statutory 'development plan' comprises of the National Planning Framework (NPF) and the Local Development Plan (LDP) for each planning authority.

Procedures for full reviews and preparation of the NPF are set out in the Town and Country Planning (Scotland) Act 1997 (as amended), while those for full reviews and preparation of LDPs are set out between both the Town and Country Planning (Scotland) Act 1997 (as amended) and The Town and Country Planning (Development Planning) (Scotland) Regulations 2023.

Section 12 of the Planning (Scotland) Act 2019 inserts new sections 3CC and 20AA into the Town and Country Planning (Scotland) Act 1997 to introduce powers to amend both the National Planning Framework and local development plans. Regulations are required to set out the procedures to be followed when amending NPF or LDPs.

The Scottish Government is required to consider the impacts of proposed policies, plans or strategic decisions in relation to equalities, various societal groups and sectors, data protection and the environment, under a range of legislation and commitments.

The impacts of the overall reforms of the planning system have been considered during earlier stages of the reform programme:

• Full impact assessments of the Planning (Scotland) Bill (which introduced the procedures for preparing and adopting the NPF and LDPs, and introduced the principle of amendments and the scope of the amendment regulations) were published when the Bill was introduced to the Scottish Parliament.
• Impact assessments also considered the impacts of the development planning regulations which came into force in May 2023.

Given the amendment regulations will be procedural and technical in nature, we have screened out most of the impact assessments, as the impacts have been considered through previous assessments, listed in the bullets above. Further detail is set out throughout this document.

These impact assessments relate to the proposed procedures for preparing amendments to NPF and LDPs. The plans prepared using those procedures will themselves be subject to assessments of the impact of their content. An example of this is the Integrated Impact Assessment which informed the drafting of NPF4.