- Asked by: Rob Gibson, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 14 May 2003
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Current Status:
Answered by Margaret Curran on 2 June 2003
To ask the Scottish Executive what information it has on the average length of time taken by local authorities to process planning applications, broken down by category where appropriate in each of the last 10 years.
Answer
The statistics which planning authorities provide to the Executive every six months provide the basis for monitoring their performance against time thresholds and the targets set down by the Executive in paragraphs 85-87 of
Scottish Planning Policy 1: The Planning System,
http://www.scotland.gov.uk/library5/planning/spp1-00.asp. The Executive does not collect the raw data that would enable us to provide averages of time taken. A copy of the planning application data showing planning authority performance from 1 April 1996 to 30 September 2002 has been placed in the Parliament's Reference Centre (Bib. number 27631). Prior to April 1996, data was collected from each district authority and would not therefore be comparable. Detailed statistics of recent planning authority performance are available for public scrutiny in the Audit section of the Executive's Planning website
http://www.scotland.gov.uk/about/Planning/audit.aspx.