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DRAFT REGULATIONS ON DEVELOPMENT PLAN EXAMINATIONS
CONSULTATION PAPER

INTRODUCTION

1. In the new development planning regime introduced by the Planning etc. (Scotland) Act 2006, examinations are intended as the principal means of independently testing the issues arising from representations on proposed strategic development plans ( SDPs) and local development plans ( LDPs).

2. The Planning etc. (Scotland) Act 2006 introduces new provisions into the Town and Country Planning (Scotland) Act 1997 ("the Act") and requires examinations to be held into all proposed SDPs and LDPs where there are outstanding representations. In addition, examinations must be held into proposed SDPs where the planning authorities that make up the strategic development planning authority ( SDPA) have not agreed on the content of the plan and have submitted alternative proposals, or Scottish Ministers otherwise consider an examination to be appropriate. Particularly with regard to SDPs this represents a significant change compared to the outgoing regime in which structure plans have very rarely been subjected to examination in public.

3. The draft regulations attached as Annex A to this consultation paper are made under new sections 12(3) and 19(5) of the Act, which allows Scottish Ministers to make regulations as to:

1. How examination costs and overheads will be met;
2. The procedures to follow at examinations; and
3. What is to be assessed in examinations and what matters may be referred to in making the assessment.

4. Under the outgoing development plan system, procedures for holding examinations in public into structure plans or local inquiries into local plans are not set out in secondary legislation but in guidance (Circular 6/1985 - Code of Practice for the Examination in Public of Structure Plans; Circular 1/1996 - Local Plan Inquiries: Local Plan Service Standards; and Circular 32/1996 - Code of Practice for Local Plan Inquiries (supplemented in March 2006 by further interim guidance)). The intention with these draft regulations is to provide more certainty by setting out the scope and some key procedures for the examination in legislation, but there will also be a continued role for guidance, by way of a new code of practice for development plan examinations.

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