Chamber and committees

The agreement should set out the responsibilities of all parties to the agreement. The key land use issues associated with a development will continue to be addressed under the terms of the planning permission, and enforced by the planning authority.

Scottish ministers would only become involved in individual good neighbour agreements in the event of one party appealing to them following a failure to agree modifications to an agreement locally.

An official from the Scottish Executive’s Equality Unit will be making a presentation on the Gender Duty to attendees at the Equal Opportunities Commission (EOC) Code of Practice consultation events being held across Scotland in February and March. Officials from across the Executive are represented on the Equal Opportunities Commission (Scotland) Gender Duty Advisory Group and an Executive official also attends the EOC (GB) Gender Duty Advisory Group.

The scope of good neighbour agreements will be as set out in the Planning etc. (Scotland) Bill, however guidance on the preparation of such agreements will be issued before the commencement of the new provisions.

In July 2004, the Executive convened the Neighbour Notification Working Party to examine the detailed implications of transferring responsibility for neighbour notification to planning authorities. The issues examined by the working party included the cost and staff resource implications of the proposals contained in the White Paper, Modernising the Planning System. The working party is finalising its report which will be published later this spring.

In addition, the Executive commissioned the consultants Ove Arup and Partners in April 2005 to assess comprehensively the impact of the white paper proposals for reform of the planning system. That report also examined the cost and staff resource implications of transferring responsibility for neighbour notification to planning authorities. The report Planning Reforms: An Impact Assessment was published in December 2005.

Provisions for Good Neighbour Agreements are contained in s23 of the Planning Etc (Scotland) Bill.

The Scottish Executive is committed to linguistic access for Deaf people in Scotland and has noted the development of the SIGNVRS scheme.

We have no plans at present to launch such a pilot scheme in Scotland. However, we are aware of the interest in the use of sign video relay technology and will explore with our BSL and Linguistic Access Working Group how we might learn from this development.

The Building (Scotland) Act 2003 has not affected planning enforcement. In relation to building regulations, powers exist under the act which enable local authorities to recover expenses incurred on enforcement.

In line with its aim of helping staff to achieve a satisfactory work life balance, the Scottish Executive offers flexible working hours to all of it’s employees, in it’s core departments, including part-time staff and senior civil servants. A small number of employees who work shifts are excluded.

The recent report The future of unpaid care in Scotland arose out of a wide ranging study commissioned by the Scottish Executive to help us plan for the support needs of unpaid carers over the next 10 years. The study looked at a wide range of issues, including the financial implications of caring and financial support for carers. This led to a specific recommendation that the UK Government review benefit entitlements, tax credit and pensions for carers. On 30 September 2005, I wrote to the Chancellor of the Exchequer and the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, as well as other relevant UK Ministers, to draw their attention to the report and that recommendation.

We do not otherwise monitor incomes or savings of family carers.