Official Report 1177KB pdf
The next item of business is consideration of motion S6M-19276, in the name of Gillian Martin, on the legislative consent motion for the Planning and Infrastructure Bill, which is United Kingdom legislation.
Motion moved,
That the Parliament agrees that the relevant provisions of the Planning and Infrastructure Bill, introduced in the House of Commons on 11 March 2025, and subsequently amended, relating to clauses 18 to 24, 46 and 112, so far as these matters fall within the legislative competence of the Scottish Parliament or alter the executive competence of the Scottish Ministers, should be considered by the UK Parliament.—[Graeme Dey]
17:19
The Scottish National Party Government is selling Scotland’s countryside to the highest bidder. The Cabinet Secretary for Climate Action and Energy is quite happy to travel the world, but she cannot even be bothered to meet campaign groups in her constituency. She would rather spend her time in New York than in New Deer. What a shameful display.
The motion before us will silence communities. That will forever be the SNP Government’s legacy to communities that are impacted by megapylons. Energy companies want to destroy our countryside to reward their shareholders, and the Scottish ministers are complicit in that.
In August, community groups came together in the Highlands, because they were concerned about what they were seeing in their communities—battery storage facilities, substations, hydrogen plants and monster pylons. Such environmental vandalism is endorsed by the devolved SNP Government. I was there in the audience. Two SNP MSPs, including a Government minister, signed up to recognising and valuing local democracy and the pivotal role that all our community councils play in ensuring that democracy is respected, and to undertaking to do all that we can across our respective parties to secure urgent debates at Holyrood and in the House of Commons.
I thought that, at last, we might be getting somewhere, but, since then, the SNP Government has failed to bring the issue to the chamber for debate. The SNP MSPs misled the local community because they knew what a backlash they would have received at the meeting if they had told the truth. I have written to the minister who signed up to the declaration and to the Cabinet Secretary for Climate Action and Energy, Gillian Martin, to ask when the Government will hold a debate on the matter, but I have not been able to get an answer, which is shameful.
Community councils in areas of the north-east that are impacted by monster pylons and large-scale energy projects will meet to discuss the issue in Stonehaven this weekend. Will the cabinet secretary be there? No, of course she will not, because she is not interested in listening to the voices of concerned communities.
The legislative consent motion before us will make it easier for this rotten, tired SNP Government to push through energy projects. It is quite happy to sacrifice our rural communities to suit its agenda. It wants to desecrate our countryside, and the LCM will enable the desecration of our countryside. The monster pylons that I am talking about are absolutely huge, and communities are rightly worried.
However, the issue is about more than just the size of the pylons. Houses are being devalued as we speak, and farmers will not be able to farm in the vicinity of the pylons. The bill will fast-track the building of megapylons and other electricity infrastructure, ignoring communities.
There is a huge inequality in the present system. It is rigged in favour of energy companies. We have a David versus Goliath situation, in which energy companies with deep pockets face community groups that rely on volunteers and crowdfunding. It is a disgrace. We need to have a fair system that puts community voices at the heart of the consenting process, rather than the present system, which looks to silence them.
17:22
I am not at all sure how any of what we have just heard is in any way relevant to the legislative consent motion before us, which is the matter at hand. I will not dignify what we have just heard by responding to it. Instead, I think that it would be helpful to provide some background to members on why we are seeking Parliament’s approval for the LCM on the UK Planning and Infrastructure Bill.
Although land use and planning in Scotland are devolved, the powers to legislate for the generation, transmission, distribution and supply of electricity are reserved. The Scottish ministers determine applications to construct or install electricity infrastructure under the Electricity Act 1989. The Scottish Government has long called for that system to be reformed, for the relevant powers to be given to the Scottish ministers and for the process to be modernised, as it has been across other parts of the United Kingdom.
Having finally recognised that the Scottish consenting process needed to be reformed, the previous Conservative UK Government committed to a review in November 2023. Thankfully, those plans were continued by the current UK Labour Government, and UK and Scottish Government officials have worked together in close collaboration on the proposed reforms.
Clauses 18 to 24 of the bill relate to electricity infrastructure consenting in Scotland, and clauses 46 and 112 relate to harbour processing fees. As the proposed provisions seek to alter the competence of the Scottish ministers, they require legislative consent.
As I have set out, the changes that are proposed in clauses 18 to 24 are intended to reform outdated and inefficient elements of the electricity infrastructure consenting process. The main changes are: strengthening the pre-application requirements and procedures by—for the first time—making them statutory and allowing communities to share their views earlier in the process; creating a new, reporter-led procedure in response to an objection from a local planning authority; reducing the administrative burden of automatically having to have a public inquiry, while retaining that as an option; and moving from a lengthy judicial review process to one of statutory appeals, in alignment with existing processes under the Town and Country Planning (Scotland) Act 1997.
The Scottish Government intends to consult on proposals for secondary legislation as soon as possible after the bill has received royal assent. That consultation will seek views from a wide range of stakeholders, including communities, public bodies and the industry, so that all voices can be heard in shaping the future of the process in Scotland.
In addition, I welcome the productive engagement between the Scottish Government and the UK Government, which has resulted in amendments to clause 46 and clause 112 of the bill. Those clauses will ensure that the commencement of all provisions relating to the new system of harbour revision order fees in Scotland will be a matter for Scottish ministers only. The UK Government’s decision to make those amendments in a devolved area reflects a constructive approach to devolution, and I acknowledge that.
I therefore ask Parliament to approve the motion for legislative consent in relation to the aforementioned clauses in the Planning and Infrastructure Bill.
The question on the motion will be put at decision time.