The Scot­tish Government

Dir­ect­or­ate for Plan­ning and Envir­on­ment­al Appeals

Devel­op­ment Plan Exam­in­a­tions – guid­ance note

for people who sub­mit­ted representations

1. What is a Devel­op­ment Plan Examination?

1.1 A devel­op­ment plan exam­in­a­tion is a pro­cess required by law where there are unre­solved issues raised in rep­res­ent­a­tion to a plan­ning authority’s pro­posed devel­op­ment plan. Annex 1 shows how the exam­in­a­tion sits with­in the over­all pro­cess of pre­par­ing a stra­tegic or loc­al devel­op­ment plan. The exam­in­a­tion is a two stage process:

Stage 1: Exam­in­a­tion of con­form­ity with the Par­ti­cip­a­tion State­ment.	Stage 2: Exam­in­a­tion of issues raised in representation.
To ensure that con­sulta­tion on the pro­posed plan has been car­ried out in accord­ance with the plan­ning authority’s stated inten­tions (as set out in its Par­ti­cip­a­tion Statement).	To enable the fair and pro­por­tion­ate exam­in­a­tion of any unre­solved issues and recom­mend wheth­er any changes are required pri­or to approv­al or adop­tion of the pro­posed plan.

2. Who is involved?

2.1 The exam­in­a­tion is car­ried out on behalf of Scot­tish Min­is­ters by one or more appoin­ted person(s) called reporter(s). It is admin­istered by the Scot­tish Government’s Dir­ect­or­ate for Plan­ning and Envir­on­ment­al Appeals (DPEA for short). The oth­er parties include the plan­ning author­ity who pre­pared the stra­tegic or loc­al devel­op­ment plan and all those who sub­mit­ted unre­solved rep­res­ent­a­tions to it. You may have sub­mit­ted your com­ments on the pro­posed plan to the plan­ning author­ity through a let­ter, a peti­tion or on a stand­ard form. All these sub­mis­sions are referred to as representations.

3. Your representation

3.1 It is likely that your cor­res­pond­ence on the pro­posed plan will be sent to Scot­tish Min­is­ters when the plan is sent for exam­in­a­tion. If you have writ­ten to express sup­port for the plan then the plan­ning author­ity may refer to this in its evid­ence. How­ever, the exam­in­a­tion is con­cerned only with unre­solved issues. Report­ers’ have no remit to con­sider rep­res­ent­a­tions which are unre­lated to the con­tent of the pro­posed plan.

4. Sched­ule 4 forms

4.1 The plan­ning author­ity is required to group all the unre­solved mat­ters raised in rep­res­ent­a­tions under a rel­ev­ant issue relat­ing to the pro­posed plan. A sum­mary of all the unre­solved issues is then presen­ted on a stand­ard form along with the plan­ning authority’s response. These forms, called Sched­ule 4s, enable the exam­in­a­tion to focus on the issues raised across all the vari­ous representations.

4.2 The spe­cif­ic mat­ters you raised may be split between a num­ber of issues and grouped with the views of oth­ers. The reporter’s task is to reach con­clu­sions and recom­mend­a­tions on each of the issues raised and presen­ted by the plan­ning author­ity. The forms are the key to an effi­cient exam­in­a­tion. They are designed to guide the report­er through all the inform­a­tion required to reach his/​her con­clu­sions and recom­mend­a­tions on each issue.

5. Doc­u­ment­a­tion sub­mit­ted by the plan­ning authority

5.1 The fol­low­ing doc­u­ments are provided to the exam­in­a­tion by the plan­ning authority:

Sched­ule 4 forms	The main issues report
Any sup­port­ing documentation/​evidence	The report of the com­pleted Hab­it­ats Reg­u­la­tions Apprais­al of the plan, if required
Cop­ies of all unre­solved rep­res­ent­a­tions to the pro­posed plan	Any doc­u­ments sub­mit­ted through rep­res­ent­a­tions on any unre­solved issues
The envir­on­ment­al report which details the stra­tegic envir­on­ment­al assess­ment of the plan	Any approved struc­ture plan or stra­tegic devel­op­ment plan
The pro­posed action programme	Any adop­ted loc­al plan(s) or loc­al devel­op­ment plans for the area.
The mon­it­or­ing statement
The par­ti­cip­a­tion state­ment and report of con­form­ity with the par­ti­cip­a­tion statement

6. What do you need to do?

6.1 Your rep­res­ent­a­tion is your evid­ence to the exam­in­a­tion and you do not need to take any fur­ther action unless the report­er asks you for more inform­a­tion. You will be noti­fied by either the plan­ning author­ity or DPEA that the plan has been sub­mit­ted for exam­in­a­tion. How­ever in order to ensure that the pro­cess remains fair to all parties

any unso­li­cited cor­res­pond­ence sub­mit­ted to DPEA at this stage may be returned. In oth­er words you should not make any fur­ther sub­mis­sions at any stage unless you are reques­ted to do so by the report­er. Para­graph 9.3 below details the lim­ited cir­cum­stances where you may be asked for fur­ther input. In many cases you will simply be noti­fied when the exam­in­a­tion is com­plete and where its find­ings are published.

7. Com­mence­ment of the Examination.

7.1 The steps involved in com­mence­ment of the Exam­in­a­tion are sum­mar­ised below.

• Plan sub­mit­ted to Min­is­ters by the plan­ning authority.
• Plan­ning author­ity noti­fied of appoint­ment of a reporter.
• All neces­sary doc­u­ment­a­tion out­stand­ing sub­mit­ted with­in 14 days of that appointment.
• For Stra­tegic Devel­op­ment Plans — Scot­tish Min­is­ters serve notice of the appoint­ment of the report­er in a loc­al news­pa­per and noti­fy all those who sub­mit­ted representations.
• For Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plans — noti­fic­a­tion is the respons­ib­il­ity of the plan­ning authority.
• Stage one of the exam­in­a­tion com­mences when all doc­u­ments have been received from the plan­ning authority.
• Stage two of the exam­in­a­tion com­mences when stage one is com­plete, but not before 28 days from the appoint­ment of a reporter.

7.2 From this stage until com­ple­tion, the pro­cess is admin­istered through the DPEA and the exam­in­a­tion is led by one or more reporter(s). It is anti­cip­ated that the exam­in­a­tion should be com­pleted with­in 6 – 9 months. Where the exam­in­a­tion requires more than one report­er a lead report­er is appoin­ted to man­age the process.

The Exam­in­a­tion Team

Lead Report­er: Appoin­ted at the start of the pro­cess with respons­ib­il­ity for the effi­cient man­age­ment of the exam­in­a­tion in accord­ance with the legis­lat­ive and policy framework.

Oth­er Report­ers: May be appoin­ted at any time with respons­ib­il­ity for exam­in­a­tion of those issues alloc­ated to them by the lead reporter.

Admin­is­trat­ors: A team of admin­is­trat­ors based with­in the DPEA who are respons­ible for man­aging the day to day arrange­ments for the exam­in­a­tion and provid­ing a point of con­tact for every­one involved.

8. Com­mu­nic­a­tion dur­ing the examination.

8.1 Pro­gress through the exam­in­a­tion and all cor­res­pond­ence can be tracked on the DPEA web pages (Include link). The web site also includes an ​‘over­view’ that provides a monthly update on pro­gress with the exam­in­a­tion. To ensure the impar­tial pos­i­tion of the report­ers all com­mu­nic­a­tions con­nec­ted with the exam­in­a­tion are handled through the admin­is­trat­ive team.

8.2 As noted at 6.1 above fur­ther inform­a­tion or evid­ence should only be lodged where invited and it should spe­cific­ally address the mat­ters raised by the report­er. In the interests of fair­ness and effi­ciency the report­er is unlikely to be able to con­sider inform­a­tion that he/​she did not request. Con­sequently, the admin­is­tra­tion team may return any unre­ques­ted com­mu­nic­a­tions about the con­tent of the plan or the issues as raised in rep­res­ent­a­tion. How­ever, they will be happy to help with any oth­er quer­ies you may have regard­ing the exam­in­a­tion process.

9. The Examination

9.1 Stage 1: Exam­in­a­tion of con­form­ity with the par­ti­cip­a­tion state­ment. The plan­ning author­ity will sub­mit a report of con­form­ity with their par­ti­cip­a­tion state­ment to the DPEA. This should set out what the plan­ning author­ity did by way of pub­li­city and pub­lic par­ti­cip­a­tion to con­form with their par­ti­cip­a­tion state­ment. The report­er will then com­pare the evid­ence in the report of con­form­ity with what the plan­ning author­ity ori­gin­ally pro­posed to do in their par­ti­cip­a­tion state­ment. Where the report­er is sat­is­fied that the plan­ning author­ity has car­ried out the steps con­tained in their par­ti­cip­a­tion state­ment, the plan­ning author­ity will be advised that con­form­ity has been demon­strated and that the exam­in­a­tion is pro­gress­ing to stage 2. This will also be pos­ted on the web site to con­firm that stage one is complete.

9.2 If the report­er is not sat­is­fied that the steps in the par­ti­cip­a­tion state­ment have been car­ried out and con­form­ity is not demon­strated he/​she will report this to Scot­tish Min­is­ters. The plan­ning author­ity have 4 weeks to respond before Scot­tish Min­is­ters decide wheth­er fur­ther steps should be taken or if the report­er can pro­ceed with the main exam­in­a­tion. If fur­ther steps are required the plan­ning author­ity must take action and report on these before resub­mit­ting the pro­posed plan along with any fur­ther representations.

9.3 Stage 2: Exam­in­a­tion of unre­solved issues to the pro­posed plan. The report­er will assess all of the evid­ence before him or her in rela­tion to each issue. For many issues this may be suf­fi­cient to allow the report­er to reach his/​her conclusions/​recommendations. How­ever, there may be instances where fur­ther cla­ri­fic­a­tion or evid­ence is required. Exper­i­ence to date indic­ates that some addi­tion­al inform­a­tion will be required. There are a num­ber of ways this inform­a­tion may be gathered; through site vis­its, writ­ten requests, hear­ing or inquiry ses­sions (see below)

9.4 The admin­is­tra­tion team are respons­ible for mak­ing the arrange­ments for the pro­ced­ures lis­ted below. Where the report­er requires fur­ther inform­a­tion from you or wishes you to attend a site vis­it, hear­ing or inquiry, you will be sent a let­ter detail­ing the exact nature of the request and the required times­cales. If no fur­ther inform­a­tion is reques­ted from you this does not mean that your con­cerns are being treated dif­fer­ently or with less weight. It simply means that the report­er has under­stood your pos­i­tion and does not need to ask you any­thing else.

Site Vis­its Where the report­er requires famili­ar­ity with the area and the site. It is usu­ally unac­com­pan­ied and can be car­ried out at any time dur­ing the exam­in­a­tion. Where there are dif­fi­culties obtain­ing access or identi­fy­ing par­tic­u­lar fea­tures the report­er may invite the rel­ev­ant parties, includ­ing the plan­ning author­ity, to attend an accom­pan­ied site vis­it at a spe­cified time and meet­ing place.

Hear­ings The report­er will invite attend­ance at the hear­ing from those he/​she con­siders are best placed to provide the required inform­a­tion. Writ­ten state­ments may be reques­ted in advance. These should respond to the mat­ters raised by the report­er as spe­cified in the let­ter of invit­a­tion. Parties should also provide a list and cop­ies of all the doc­u­ments on which they may wish to rely and advance notice of any per­son they may wish to speak on their behalf.

Inquir­ies A more tra­di­tion­al adversari­al pro­cess which involves the present­a­tion of evid­ence and cross exam­in­a­tion of wit­nesses. Whilst not used in devel­op­ment plan exam­in­a­tions to date, an inquiry may be appro­pri­ate where there are a large num­ber of parties involved and/​or where the issues arising are of a par­tic­u­larly com­plex or tech­nic­al nature.

10. The Report of the Examination

10.1 The report­er will add his/​her con­clu­sions and recom­mend­a­tions to each of the sched­ule 4 forms that was sub­mit­ted by the plan­ning author­ity. The reporter’s role is to test the appro­pri­ate­ness and suf­fi­ciency of the pro­posed plan in the con­text of the issues raised in rep­res­ent­a­tion. Oth­er sites and approaches are only con­sidered where the plan is demon­strated to fail this test. Modi­fic­a­tions may be recom­men­ded without fur­ther recourse to the coun­cil or those who sub­mit­ted rep­res­ent­a­tions. The report­er may rely on any evid­ence sub­mit­ted to the exam­in­a­tion. Any recom­men­ded modi­fic­a­tions must be clearly jus­ti­fied and based on the appro­pri­ate level of con­sulta­tion, envir­on­ment­al and oth­er assessment.

11. Com­ple­tion and Publication

11.1 DPEA will send the report of the exam­in­a­tion to the plan­ning author­ity. We will also pub­lish the report on to the web site and noti­fy every­one who sub­mit­ted unre­solved rep­res­ent­a­tions of its pub­lic­a­tion. For a stra­tegic devel­op­ment plan, the report will be sub­mit­ted to the Scot­tish Min­is­ters, with a copy sent to the plan­ning author­it­ies and pub­lished on the web site. Examples of com­pleted exam­in­a­tion reports can be viewed at (include link).

12. Legis­lat­ive and policy context

12.1 Full details of the legis­lat­ive and policy con­text for stra­tegic and loc­al devel­op­ment plan exam­in­a­tions are con­tained within:

Town and Coun­try Plan­ning etc. (Scot­land) Act 1997- sec­tions 12, 12A, 19 and 19A

Town and Coun­try Plan­ning (Devel­op­ment Plan­ning) (Scot­land) Reg­u­la­tions 2008, Reg­u­la­tions 18 – 23

Plan­ning Cir­cu­lar 1, 2009, Devel­op­ment Plan­ning, sec­tions 68 – 84

13. Next Steps

13.1 Approv­al of Stra­tegic Devel­op­ment Plans: Fol­low­ing the exam­in­a­tion it is for Scot­tish Min­is­ters to approve, modi­fy or reject the plan. The plan may be approved as a whole or in part. Min­is­ters may choose to modi­fy the plan set­ting out reas­ons for doing so.

13.2 Adop­tion of Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plans: Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plans are adop­ted by the plan­ning author­ity rather than approved by Scot­tish Min­is­ters. The reporter’s recom­mend­a­tions are bind­ing in all but a few lim­ited cir­cum­stances. Full details of these cir­cum­stances are set out in sec­tion 238 of the Town and Coun­try Plan­ning (Scot­land) Act 1997 and the Town and Coun­try Plan­ning (grounds for declin­ing to fol­low recom­mend­a­tions) (Scot­land) Reg­u­la­tions 2009.

Annex 1 Sum­mary of devel­op­ment plan process.

Plan Pre­par­a­tion and evid­ence gathering

↓

Pre­pare for Examination

Exam­in­a­tion

Pub­lish Devel­op­ment Plan Scheme and Par­ti­cip­a­tion Statement

Con­sult on main issues

Con­sider all views in pre­par­ing Pro­posed Plan and Pro­posed Action Programme

Pub­lish Pro­posed Plan and Par­ti­cip­a­tion Statement

Invite rep­res­ent­a­tions and under­take neigh­bour noti­fic­a­tion as set out in par­ti­cip­a­tion statement

Dead­line for sub­mis­sion of all rep­res­ent­a­tions to the pro­posed plan

Plan­ning Author­ity con­siders rep­res­ent­a­tions and pre­pares for exam­in­a­tion assum­ing no fur­ther modi­fic­a­tion and remain­ing unre­solved issues.

Com­mence­ment: Plan­ning author­ity sub­mits pro­posed plan and sup­port­ing doc­u­ment­a­tion to Min­is­ters. Reporter(s) appointed.

Report­er exam­ines con­form­ity with par­ti­cip­a­tion state­ment. When

↓ demon­strated report­er pro­ceeds to assess unre­solved issues.

Report­er exam­ines unre­solved issues, writ­ten requests for fur­ther inform­a­tion, pos­sible site vis­its and hearings/​inquiry as required.

Exam­in­a­tion report published

Min­is­ters reject, approve, modi­fy stra­tegic devel­op­ment plans. Plan­ning Author­ity adopts loc­al devel­op­ment plans includ­ing reporter’s modi­fic­a­tions (sub­ject to lim­ited exceptions).

Approved or Adop­ted Plan is published.

Approv­al or Adoption