Local Development Plans - evidence reports and gate checks: action plan and advice

Agreed Actions

The following steps are being taken with immediate effect:

Scottish Government – Planning Architecture & Regeneration Directorate will:

1. Issue this advice, keep it under review and update as required.

2. Monitor progress of plans as they are prepared: 6-monthly updates from planning authorities to SG commenced in September 2025.

3. Provide informal support and advice to planning authorities as far as capacity allows and work with the National Planning Improvement Champion (NPIC), Planning Hub and Heads of Planning Scotland (HOPS) to facilitate shared learning between authorities and improve performance.

4. Highlight to key agencies their statutory requirements on data and evidence.

5. Apply the collaborative approach taken at the summit and to this advice to avoid potential for delays at Proposed Plan and examination stages as far as possible.

Scottish Government – DPEA will:

6. Engage more openly as appropriate – DPEA has an open offer to discuss general content and queries on Evidence Reports in the following ways:

• They will continue to participate in pre- and post-Gate Check discussions with planning authorities – this has already benefited some plans and should be undertaken as a matter of course.
• Reporters are also willing to engage more broadly on an informal basis with authorities and the National Planning Improvement Champion (NPIC), for example in focused sessions to explain the advice sheets appended to this advice.

7. Use Further Information Requests where this could achieve a positive and transparent outcome, given that Evidence Reports cannot be changed by the reporter.

8. Focus on substantive issues and where returning a report, be clear and specific about what needs to be addressed.

9. Suggest an authority withdraws and resubmits where early review suggests key areas are missing.

10. Apply expectations on sufficiency as set out in the Annexes, recognising that circumstances will vary between authorities.

Planning authorities will:

11. Participate in pre- and post-Gate Check discussions with DPEA reporters – this is strongly recommended.

12. Consider providing draft Evidence Reports for early feedback, prior to formally submitting full versions.

13. Follow the Evidence Report and Gate Check advice set out in this document.

14. Focus on topics of relevance to their place and clearly state what is considered to be ‘sufficient’ for their plan. This should reflect the issues likely to be key and most contentious for the future plan and its delivery. It is expected that LDPs can rely on many of the policies set out in NPF4 and will be more place-based, removing the need to repeat policy unless there is a clear rationale for doing so locally. Annex A provides a template which can be used for areas of particular relevance.

15. Complete the template provided in Annex B to record stakeholder engagement in a consistent way.

16. Set out the potential for resubmission and/or withdrawal as an option in Committee reports and make provision for delegated authority for resubmission or withdrawal, thereby reducing delays.

17. Strongly consider withdrawing reports to avoid delay, when alerted to issues identified by the reporter in the early stages of the Gate Check.

The National Planning Improvement Champion/Improvement Service/ Planning Hub will:

18. Support authorities to strengthen LDP project planning and resourcing.

19. Facilitate shared learning from Evidence Reports and engagement. All will consider further summits and workshops to support adaptation to new plans, including Proposed Plans and Examinations.

20. Explore scope to develop a ‘single source of truth’ data tool.