S30 of the Planning (Scotland) Act 2019: EIR release

Information requested

Information regarding Section 30 of the Planning (Scotland) Act 2019, in particular:

1. Any mechanisms in place to monitor compliance by Planning Authorities with Section 30 of the Act;

2. Any guidance released by the Scottish Government to assist Planning Authorities in complying with Section 30 of the Act, and;

3. Any enquiries from Planning Authorities requesting guidance in complying with Section 30 of the Act since its roll out on 1 March 2020.

Response

As the information you have requested is ‘environmental information’ for the purposes of the Environmental Information (Scotland) Regulations 2004 (EIRs), we are required to deal with your request under those Regulations. We are applying the exemption at section 39(2) of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 (FOISA), so that we do not also have to deal with your request under FOISA.

This exemption is subject to the ‘public interest test’. Therefore, taking account of all the circumstances of this case, we have considered if the public interest in disclosing the information outweighs the public interest in applying the exemption. We have found that, on balance, the public interest lies in favour of upholding the exemption, because there is no public interest in dealing with the same request under two different regimes. This is essentially a technical point and has no material effect on the outcome of your request.

Taking each of your three questions in turn:

1. Any mechanisms in place to monitor compliance by Planning Authorities with Section 30 of the Act;

1. There are no mechanisms for the specific purposes of monitoring compliance with this provision. However, decision notices must be included on planning authorities’ planning registers (see Schedule 2 to the Town and Country Planning (Development Management Procedure) (Scotland) Regulations 2013).

2. Any guidance released by the Scottish Government to assist Planning Authorities in complying with Section 30 of the Act, and;

2. There is no specific guidance on the requirement inserted by Section 30 of the 2019 Act, although it is referred to in Scottish Government Planning Circular 3/2022 (see paragraph 4.101). The requirement for authorities to determine applications in accordance with the development plan unless material considerations indicate otherwise is longstanding.

3. Any enquiries from Planning Authorities requesting guidance in complying with Section 30 of the Act since its roll out on 1 March 2020.

3. The Scottish Government has not received any enquiries from Planning Authorities asking for guidance to assist in complying with Section 30 of the Act.

About FOI

The Scottish Government is committed to publishing all information released in response to Freedom of Information requests. View all FOI responses at http://www.gov.scot/foi-responses.