Handling environmental appeals through hearings or local inquiries: code of practice

Introduction

5. Schedule 20 does not set out any detailed procedural rules for the conduct of hearings or inquiries. Accordingly, this code of practice sets out the arrangements which the DPEA proposes to apply, to ensure all parties are clear about what will happen and what is expected of them in hearings or inquiries conducted under the 1995 Act. The code of practice is designed to ensure the appeal process is fair, robust and efficient.

6. In the past, the practice adopted in environmental appeals in which a hearing or inquiry took place was to apply, by analogy, the Town and Country Planning (Inquiries Procedure) (Scotland) Rules 1997. Those rules no longer apply to planning appeals and the procedures set out in this code are modelled on the more modern and efficient handling arrangements in the Town and Country Planning (Appeals) (Scotland) Regulations 2013.