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The Scottish Government will continue to work closely with local government to get maximum benefit to the economy from our combined investment. The Scottish Futures Trust has a particular role in supporting local authorities to deliver capital investment, such as schools and other community projects, efficiently and effectively.

In line with their statutory duty and the Prudential Code, decisions on the capital investment, and the financial plans to ensure adequate budget provision is made to meet the costs of that investment, are a matter for each local authority.

Scottish Ministers welcome the findings in the report by Brodies LLP that challenges to planning decisions in Scotland are less likely to be successful than similar challenges in England and Wales. This demonstrates that decisions taken by local planning authorities and by the Scottish Government are soundly based and well-reasoned and play an important part in delivering sustainable economic development.

It is open to parties to seek review by the courts of planning decisions made by planning authorities or the Scottish Ministers.

Scottish Government has been actively engaging Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH) on the development of National Planning Framework 3 (NPF3) and the preparation of revised Scottish Planning Policy (SPP) and looks forward to receiving SNH’s views on the NPF3 Main Issues Report and draft Scottish Planning Policy when these are issued for consultation. SNH will use their strategic locational guidance to help inform their response(s) to these consultations.

Scottish Natural Heritage are consulted on windfarm applications submitted to Scottish Ministers under Section 36 of the Electricity Act 1989 and there is a range of criteria which triggers consultation with SNH on applications submitted to planning authorities. SNH will use their Strategic Locational Guidance to provide consultation responses on these applications, which Scottish Ministers and planning authorities will take into account in determining these applications.

Before determining an application the planning authority must also consult SNH on any Environmental Statement accompanying the planning application, where such a statement is required under the Town and Country Planning (Environmental Impact Assessment) (Scotland) Regulations 2011, SSI 2011/139 or where an appropriate assessment is required under The Conservation (Natural Habitats & c.) Regulations 1994 as amended.

Scottish Government, through Scottish Planning Policy (SPP), establishes the framework for Scottish Natural Heritage’s (SNH’s) strategic locational guidance (SLG) and provides statutory opportunities for SNH as a key agency to use their SLG to make representations to planning authorities on natural heritage matters to help inform local development plans.

The new Planning Performance Frameworks have been designed to give local authorities the opportunity to provide information on their organisational structure and the level of staff within that structure. As these were the first ever Planning Performance Frameworks, the level of information provided by each authority varies greatly. However, we will work with Heads of Planning Scotland (HoPS) to refine the requirements for the next round of frameworks to enable more accurate analysis.

Similarly, the frameworks allow authorities the opportunity to identify the skill sets available to them within their organisation and what measures have been introduced to encourage a culture of continuous improvement. It is useful to have a record of this information and the Scottish Government has committed a further £20,000 this year to HoPS to help further develop skills. Since 2006, the Scottish Government has invested over £2.7 million in local authority skills development through the Planning Development Programme. However, it is ultimately the responsibility of each authority to ensure that they possess the skills necessary to carry out their planning duties effectively and efficiently.

The Scottish Government will be publishing a Scotland-wide report that will provide a summary of information collated from the annual performance reports by each planning authority and key agency. It is expected that each organisation will make their own annual report available on the web.

The Scottish Government publishes statistics on a quarterly basis that sets out the performance of planning authorities on different types of planning applications. This information guides authorities who benchmark against other comparable authorities and helps to focus attempts to improve efficiency. These statistics are not formally recognised as planning targets.

We have reported to the Scottish Parliament annually since 2011 on the operation of Section 72 of the Climate Change (Scotland) Act 2009, as required by and within the terms of Section 73 of the Act. This year’s report will be laid before the Scottish Parliament by 1 April. Previous year’s reports have the following laying numbers: SG/2011/21 and SG/2012/38.