Planning performance statistics 2020/2021: quarterly (April 2020 to September 2020)

This report presents summary statistics on planning application decision-making timescales for April to September 2020, as well as historic data back to 2016/17. It is based on data collected from Local and Planning Authorities as part of the Planning Performance Framework (introduced in 2012).


Applications for Major Developments (excludes legacy cases)

There were 120 decisions on major developments in the first six months of 2020/21, 51 fewer than in the same period in the previous year. The average decision time for the 82 of these not subject to processing agreements was 39.0 weeks, over seven weeks slower than the 31.7 weeks for the same period in 2019/20. Both the number of applications and average decision times were impacted on by restrictions due to the COVID-19 Pandemic.

Chart 2: Applications for Major Developments (excluding legacy cases)
Combined line and bar chart showing annual trends since 2016/17 in number of applications determined and average decision times for major developments

The average decision time figures of 35.9 and 41.2 weeks for quarters one and two have been influenced by a number of lengthier decision times, including 15 decision times of longer than a year – six in quarter one and nine in quarter two. Two applications in quarter one took over two years, three applications in quarter two had decision times of over 2 years, two of these taking over four years.

If the applications that took over two years are excluded the average decision time for quarter one would be 31.1 weeks, almost five weeks quicker. For quarter two the average decision time would be 31.9 weeks, a reduction of more than nine weeks.

Further information on the distribution of decision times for major development applications is given in Annex A.

Contact

Email: planstats@gov.scot

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