Chamber and committees

Question reference: S5W-26907

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: 9 January 2020
Current status: Answered by Kevin Stewart on 17 January 2020

Question

To ask the Scottish Government how many planning (a) practitioners have been employed and (b) applications have been decided by each local planning authority in each year since 2012-13.

Answer

The number of planning practitioners employed in planning departments in local authorities is not held centrally. The member may be interested to know that the RTPI has published research which states that the number of staff members in planning authorities has reduced by over 25% since 2009.

https://www.rtpi.org.uk/media/3314972/Resourcing%20the%20Planning%20System%20-%20RTPI%20Scotland%20Key%20Trends%20and%20Findings%202019.pdf

However, Planning Authorities have from 2012-13 up to 2017-18 provided information on the number of staff employed in planning departments in their Planning Performance Framework (PPF) Reports. It should be noted that the information provided is inconsistent due to different interpretations and structures of Planning Authorities across Scotland. For this reason Planning Authorities stopped providing this information as part of the PPF in 2018-19.

Authority	Staff numbers 2013-14	Staff numbers 2014-15	Staff numbers 2015-16	Staff numbers 2016-17	Staff numbers 2017-18
Aberdeen City	53.5	58.5	57.9	49.5	37.5
Aberdeenshire	95	162.2	134.7	147.7	144.2
Angus	33	33.5	33	32	25.6
Argyll and Bute	44.5	44.5	43	44	27
Cairngorms National Park	9.5	11	10	10	11.2
Clackmannanshire	7.5	6.5	7	7	6.5
Dumfries and Galloway	46.75	40.9	40.9	44.4	32.6
Dundee City	25.5	25.5	24.5	25	20.5
East Ayrshire	32.5	32.5	44	43	37.5
East Dunbartonshire	32	29	28	30	16.2
East Lothian	24.6	24.6	26	27.5	27
East Renfrewshire	24.3	27.3	29.5	28.5	36
City of Edinburgh	165	151	142	0	75.5
Falkirk	44.5	41	32.1	27.6	30
Fife	66	79	66.5	64.74	64.24
Glasgow City	119.95	112.4	0	110.8	98.6
Highland	84	87	0	55	57.2
Inverclyde	21	20	20	20	18.1
Loch Lomond and The Trossachs National Park	20.6	18.6	16.4	17.4	17.6
Midlothian	27.4	27.83	29.63	29.63	26.9
Moray	27.5	27.5	54	29.4	24.6
Na h-Eileanan Siar	16.5	16.5	15.6	15.1	12.2
North Ayrshire	22.2	22.2	22.2	14.2	14.8
North Lanarkshire	82.8	56.5	53	0	38.46
Orkney Islands	20.3	20.3	19.9	20.9	16.8
Perth and Kinross	53	51	51	50	44.1
Renfrewshire	28.3	28.3	0	27.1	19.76
Scottish Borders	31	72	70	64	68
Shetland Islands	25	23.97	25.5	25.5	15
South Ayrshire	30.5	30.5	0	32	20
South Lanarkshire	59	53	54	54	39.6
Stirling	27.8	27.8	27.8	22.8	24.3
West Dunbartonshire	14.5	14.5	14.5	14.5	13.5
West Lothian	30	23.02	23.02	17.3	20.3
Scotland Average	42.5	44.1	35.8	35.3	34.7
Scotland Total	1445.5	1499.92	1215.65	1200.57	1181.36

The number of planning applications determined by planning authorities is included below.

Authority	2012-13	2013-14	2014-15	2015-16	2016-17	2017-18	2018-19
Aberdeen City	1,414	1,517	1,462	1,470	1,173	1,122	1,150
Aberdeenshire	3,653	3,391	3,466	3,235	2,644	2,560	2,452
Angus	880	942	872	895	842	805	758
Argyll and Bute	1,238	1,333	1,317	1,249	1,311	1,294	1,277
Cairngorms National Park	51	54	63	24	24	11	30
Clackmannanshire	231	238	217	243	237	229	245
Dumfries and Galloway	1,452	1,648	2,061	1,308	1,110	1,337	1,293
Dundee City	492	607	534	684	610	616	640
East Ayrshire	618	553	552	574	648	532	558
East Dunbartonshire	706	682	710	720	720	799	709
East Lothian	957	1,065	949	1,001	970	991	1,114
East Renfrewshire	603	647	683	676	686	633	702
City of Edinburgh	3,260	3,380	3,634	3,868	3,808	3,684	3,683
Falkirk	1,323	1,149	580	584	612	608	603
Fife	2,475	2,566	2,596	2,439	2,558	2,385	2,338
Glasgow City	1,801	1,923	2,314	2,519	2,792	2,606	2,511
Highland	2,564	2,712	2,666	2,810	2,772	2,905	3,032
Inverclyde	393	355	354	360	388	401	345
Loch Lomond and The Trossachs National Park	327	308	301	334	328	284	284
Midlothian	596	534	520	589	493	537	556
Moray	936	959	901	819	709	774	650
Na h-Eileanan Siar	495	475	412	386	425	432	401
North Ayrshire	616	629	590	571	639	564	603
North Lanarkshire	984	1,055	991	1,041	1,103	994	923
Orkney Islands	693	479	454	506	488	424	417
Perth and Kinross	1,769	1,802	1,707	1,720	1,683	1,613	1,640
Renfrewshire	695	714	699	732	703	693	734
Scottish Borders	1,238	1,117	1,112	1,318	1,083	1,200	1,231
Shetland Islands	361	418	349	370	372	296	261
South Ayrshire	882	960	1,121	993	866	969	825
South Lanarkshire	1,470	1,505	1,658	1,620	1,690	1,485	1,606
Stirling	693	736	688	736	790	812	734
West Dunbartonshire	237	254	214	270	246	255	222
West Lothian	728	734	691	782	724	711	879
Scotland	36,831	37,441	37,438	37,446	36,247	35,561	35,406

Data includes applications with and without processing agreements and legacy applications

The reported number of decisions made includes the following application types:

- Applications for all Major and Local developments

- Applications for Approval of Matters Specified in Conditions

- Listed Building and Conservation Area Consents

- Applications for consent to display advertisements

- Hazardous Substances Consents

- A number of other consents and certificates including but not limited to certificates of lawfulness, certificates of appropriate alternative development, notifications of overhead lines, applications for notifications and determinations under classes 18 & 22 (agricultural and forestry operations)

Decisions may also have been made on other applications that are not included in the reported figures.

Application types not counted in the reported figures include but are not limited to:

- National Developments

- Applications for permitted developments or where prior approval/planning permission is not required (Except Farm/Forestry notifications which are included)

- Applications for tree felling licences, Tree Preservation Orders (TPO); issues of TPOs, applications to fell under TPOs and applications to fell in conservation areas.

- Applications for Reviews of old mineral permissions.

- Applications for revisions and modifications to existing or approved schemes

- Applications for non-material variations.

- Applications for modification/discharge of planning obligations

- Applications anticipating disposal of Crown land, by statutory undertakers, or for continuation of electricity undertakings.

- Scoping or Screening Applications

- High Hedge Notices

- Applications where the decision to approve/reject has been made by an external body such as Scottish Ministers or Historic Scotland.

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