Chamber and committees

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-05896 on 7 February 2022. All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers

Draft National Planning Framework 4 (NPF4) set out a spatial strategy based on how our approach to planning and development can help to achieve a net zero, sustainable Scotland by 2045. This included a new policy on community wealth building, supporting a more people-centred approach to economic development. This draft policy proposed that individual proposals in national and major categories of development should contribute to community wealth building objectives.

The Scottish Government also encourages renewable energy businesses and communities to utilise its Good Practice Principles for Community Benefits from Onshore Renewable Energy Developments (and Shared Ownership of Onshore Renewable Energy Developments) (May 2019) which sets out national standards for implementing community benefits.

The Parliamentary scrutiny period and public consultation on Draft NPF4 has now concluded. Responses received are now being analysed and will inform the finalised NPF4, which will be submitted for Parliament’s approval, prior to adoption by Scottish Ministers.

SEPA remains impacted by the cyber-attack and significant work is ongoing to build back. SEPA’s approach is to accelerate improvements already underway by building new systems and ways of working that will set it up for long term success. This includes a digital transformation that enables services to be more accessible online, making it quicker and easier for communities and businesses. SEPA will shortly publish its 2022-23 Annual Operating Plan setting out its priorities for the year ahead.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-08445 on 6 May 2022. All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers .

Scottish Government officials continue to meet at least monthly with SEPA and Scottish Ministers are provided with regular update briefings. In addition, the Minister for Environment and Land Reform has met on a number of occasions with the SEPA Chair, Board and Interim CEO.

Due to an unexpected system error 19,881 Scottish Child Payment clients and 1,284 Child Disability Payment clients who were due to receive their regular payment throughout week commencing Monday 18 April experienced a delay of one working day. Social Security Scotland contacted those impacted to let them know in advance. For clarity, they have received all of their payments.

Implementing our improved social security system and work to continually improve this - for example further uprating benefits to help tackle the cost of living crisis - is not without its technical challenges. There are processes in place to mitigate risk and when issues do arise our priority is ensuring people get the money they are due as quickly as possible and protecting those who are the most vulnerable. The unexpected cause of this delay has been identified and rectified.

The Scottish Government has provided £1.4 million to the Scottish Refugee Council for the expansion of its Refugee Integration Service including qualified helpline advisers and caseworkers. People arriving from Ukraine will also be able to access help and support on an ongoing basis from local authority resettlement officers, and they will be able to raise accommodation concerns directly to their housing association or local authority provider.

The Scottish Government has conducted extensive engagement and consultation involving a wide range of public, private and third sector organisations and individuals throughout its preparation of National Planning Framework 4 (NPF4), including three formal public consultation exercises.

Our Call for Ideas in 2020 attracted over 180 stakeholders to participate at our roadshow workshops, plus around 100 at drop in sessions and over 100 at events hosted by the Royal Town Planning Institute in Scotland on our behalf. Separately, we received written responses to the Call for Ideas from nearly 350 consultees. 35 contributors also provided think piece articles, and we held a variety of sessions and meetings with a range of stakeholders including the Scottish Youth Parliament. The Scottish Government’s Position Statement consultation later in 2020 attracted around 250 written responses. We also undertook extensive collaborative work with local authorities to support their preparation of indicative Regional Spatial Strategies, which have formed the basis of the spatial strategy in the draft NPF4.

The recent Draft NPF4 consultation exercise attracted over 750 formal consultation responses, and we also encouraged participation in discussions with a broad range of stakeholders. Our engagement programme included open invitation discussions on policy themes and action areas with around 265 stakeholders participating. We held a roundtable discussion on equalities, and again worked with the Royal Town Planning Institute in Scotland to deliver roundtable discussions where 45 people participated. We also worked with PAS who hosted events for community groups (over 50 participants) and with PlayScotland to gather perspectives from children and young people.

All engagement material, including consultation responses, event overviews and analysis of consultation responses in relation to both the Call for Ideas and the Position Statement are available at www.transformingplanning.scot. Materials for the Draft NPF4 consultation will be published in due course.

The Scottish Government’s draft National Planning Framework 4 (NPF4) set out how our approach to planning and development can achieve a net zero, sustainable Scotland by 2045. The draft NPF4 included green energy policy 19 which would support renewable energy development other than in National Parks and National Scenic Areas, subject to an assessment of their impacts on a case by case basis. Criteria for assessing proposals were also set out, including impacts on communities and individual dwellings.

The Parliamentary scrutiny period and public consultation on Draft National Planning Framework 4 has now concluded. Responses received are now being analysed and will inform the finalised NPF4, which will be submitted for Parliament’s approval, prior to adoption by Scottish Ministers.

In 2019 we published our National Planning Framework 3 (NPF3) Monitoring Report which reflected on progress across the 30 key actions and 14 national developments. NPF3 was published in 2014 so was not monitored against the 6 outcomes which were introduced by the Planning (Scotland) Act 2019.

We will work with key stakeholders to ensure monitoring for NPF4 is proportionate and effective.