Local Government and Communities Committee

Meeting date: Wednesday, May 24, 2017

Official Report 564KB pdf

Subordinate Legislation

Town and Country Planning (Fees for Applications and Deemed Applications) (Scotland) Amendment Regulations 2017 (SSI 2017/120)

Town and Country Planning (Fees for Applications and Deemed Applications) (Scotland) Amendment (No 2) Regulations 2017 (SSI 2017/149)

We move to agenda item 3. We still have quite a lot to get through. The committee will consider SSI 2017/120 and SSI 2017/149. The instruments are laid under the negative procedure, which means that the provisions will come into force unless the Parliament votes on a motion to annul them.

It should be noted that the Delegated Powers and Law Reform Committee reported on SSI 2017/120 due to defective drafting and, therefore, the Scottish Government laid SSI 2017/149 to correct the regulations. The DPLR Committee subsequently reported on SSI 2017/149 because it breaches the 28-day rule but found that the breach was acceptable, given that it had timeously corrected the defects in the previous regulations.

The paper from the clerks provides more information on the DPLR Committee’s consideration. Due to the breach of the 28-day rule, the Scottish Government also wrote to the Presiding Officer on the breach of the laying requirements. That is also set out in the paper.

There was a lot in that, but no motion to annul has been laid. If there are no comments, does the committee agree to make no recommendations in relation to the instruments?

Members indicated agreement.