Communities Committee, 19 Apr 2006
Meeting date: Wednesday, April 19, 2006
Official Report
139KB pdf
Subordinate Legislation
Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act 2004 (Commencement No 2 and Consequential Provisions) (Scotland) Order 2006 (draft)
Item 2 is consideration of the draft Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act 2004 (Commencement No 2 and Consequential Provisions) (Scotland) Order 2006. I welcome the Deputy Minister for Communities, Johann Lamont, who is accompanied by Executive officials Alan Cameron and Christine Munro. The Scottish statutory instrument that we are considering is subject to the affirmative procedure, so the minister is required under rule 10.6.2 of the standing orders of the Scottish Parliament to propose by motion that the draft instrument be approved.
Committee members have received copies of the draft order and the accompanying documentation. I invite the minister to speak briefly to the SSI, but she should not move the motion yet.
I send my best wishes to Mary Scanlon. It was a privilege to serve with her on the committee and to work with her when I attended the committee as a minister, which I have seemed to do fairly frequently. She certainly helped me to focus on the issue of udal law a little more than I had ever intended. I associate myself with the convener's comments.
I thank you for the opportunity to discuss the draft order, which relates to the removal of Crown immunity from planning control in Scotland. It might be helpful if I begin my describing briefly some of the background to the issue.
Members will know that legislation does not bind the Crown unless there is express provision to say that it does. A series of court decisions has confirmed that the planning acts do not bind the Crown. In Scotland, the Crown follows a set of administrative procedures that broadly reflect the statutory requirements on processing planning applications. Provisions for the removal of Crown immunity from planning control, including provisions relating to Scotland, were introduced in the Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act 2004. Some members of the committee will recall the discussion about those provisions and the related Sewel motion that we had towards the end of 2003. The draft order that is before the committee is one of three commencement orders that will bring into force the Scottish provisions in the 2004 act.
The first order commenced certain provisions in so far as they involved rule, regulation and order-making powers. That was to allow us to introduce the necessary secondary legislation to accompany the removal of Crown immunity. I will return later to the issue of secondary legislation.
This second order includes provisions commencement of which requires consequential amendments to some of the Scottish planning acts—specifically, the Town and Country Planning (Scotland) Act 1997 and the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) (Scotland) Act 1997. As a result of the required amendments, this commencement order is subject to the affirmative resolution procedure.
The provisions that are being commenced relate to procedures for making urgent applications to the Scottish ministers for planning permission, under section 92 of the 2004 act, or listed building or conservation areas consent, under section 93 of that act. The relevant sections introduce new provisions to the existing Scottish planning acts. They allow a developing department to apply directly to the Scottish ministers for those permissions where a development is urgently required in the national interest. That means that the developing department does not apply in the first instance to the planning authority. However, the provisions of the 2004 act, together with the amendments to existing secondary planning legislation in relation to the Crown, will ensure that consultation takes place with the planning authority, that the proposals are advertised locally and that the usual requirements for neighbour notification and consultation are applied.
The consequential amendments add references to decisions that are made under the new urgency procedures to the existing provisions that apply to decisions on planning applications and listed building and conservation area consents. For example, the powers to revoke planning permissions under section 65 of the main planning act will apply to permissions granted under the urgency procedure. Most of the consequential amendments are to the main planning act.
The third set of provisions that the draft order will commence are in section 94(4) of the 2004 act, which introduces provisions to the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) (Scotland) Act 1997 on enforcement in relation to the Crown. The consequential amendment will ensure that the new enforcement provisions are applied to the control of demolition in conservation areas, as is the case with other legislation on listed building consent.
I mentioned earlier other secondary legislation in relation to the removal of Crown immunity. We are completing work on a group of Scottish statutory instruments that will apply existing secondary planning legislation to the Crown with amendments where necessary; introduce rules for the functions of special advocates and the making of directions in relation to national security-sensitive information; and introduce transitional arrangements to govern the changeover from the current administrative procedures on Crown development to the statutory system. The instruments will be subject to the negative procedure and we hope to lay them before Parliament in the next few weeks.
Along with those statutory instruments, we will make our final commencement order, which will complete the coming into force of the Scottish provisions in the Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act 2004 and will remove Crown immunity from planning control.
I hope that this statement has provided useful background information on the second commencement order. I am happy to take questions.
No members have any questions for the minister, so I ask her to move motion S2M-4174, on the instrument.
Motion moved,
That the Communities Committee recommends that the draft Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act 2004 (Commencement No.2 and Consequential Provisions) (Scotland) Order 2006 be approved.—[Johann Lamont.]
Motion agreed to.
Do members agree that we should report to the Parliament on our decision on the draft order?
Members indicated agreement.
I thank the minister for attending the committee today. The meeting will be suspended for a moment to allow her and her officials to leave.
Meeting suspended.
On resuming—