Question reference: S6W-03204
- Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
- Date lodged: 21 September 2021
-
Current status: Answered by Tom Arthur on 1 October 2021
Question
To ask the Scottish Government how it will ensure that all nationally significant infrastructure projects deliver a net biodiversity gain.
Answer
The Planning (Scotland) Act 2019 sets out six outcomes to which a future National Planning Framework (NPF) should work towards, including securing positive effects for biodiversity, and we are developing new proposals which deliver positive outcomes for biodiversity from development without the need for overly complex metrics.
We will lay a draft NPF4 in the Scottish Parliament this autumn and will carry out extensive public consultation at the same time. We anticipate producing a final version of NPF4 for approval and adoption around spring 2022.