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Planning performance statistics - October - December 2011

An Official Statistics Publication for Scotland

Updated statistics on planning performance in Scotland have been released today by Scotland’s Chief Statistician.

The main findings are:

• The percentage of local applications decided within two months was 68.3% in the period October – December 2011, a decrease from 69.1% for the previous quarter but an increase from the comparable quarter 3 in 2010/11 (67.1%). The percentage of major applications decided in under four months increased to 31.9% in the period October – December 2011, up from 25.7% in the previous quarter.
• The number of planning applications decided by Scotland’s planning authorities in this three-month period was 9,994, a decrease from 10,740 in the previous quarter. 9,978 applications were received during the period.
• The approval rate of all applications from October to December 2011 was 91.6%, a decrease when compared to the previous quarter (92.9%) and to the equivalent quarter in 2010 (92.5%).

Related information

• Full statistical publication: Planning Performance Statistics 2011/12 - Quarter 3
• From April 2010, the planning performance statistics were collected on a quarterly basis. Prior to this, these statistics were collected annually.
• As part of modernising planning the main legislative changes to Development Management, including planning application procedures, enforcement, planning appeal procedures and new local review procedures took effect from 3rd August 2009.  The Planning authority performance data returns were revised to align these returns with the new planning system. The return has a greater emphasis on the hierarchy of developments, and thresholds to distinguish between major and local developments have been revised. As such, performance data prior to 3rd August 2009 is not comparable with that after 3rd August 2009, except at an aggregate level.
• A new Planning Performance Framework, coming into effect from 2012-13, will give a more rounded assessment of overall performance and service quality by planning authorities.  It includes a change to the format for statistics, to report on average decision-making timescales.  More information.
• Official statistics are produced by professionally independent statistical staff – more information on the standards of official statistics in Scotland.