From Scottish Government Web site
Since August 3, 2009, all planning applications for National and Major developments have been subject to statutory pre application consultation (PAC) with communities. The minimum requirements for PAC are set out in The Town and Country Planning (Scotland) Act 1997 as amended (the 1997 Act) and The Town and Country Planning (Development Management Procedure) (Scotland) Regulations 2008 (DMR). Applicants must submit a Proposal of Application Notice to the planning authority setting out what consultation activity they intend to carry out, and when a full application is submitted, this must be accompanied by a Pre Application Consultation Report that should set out how the applicant complied with the PAC requirements.
As part of the Regulatory Impact Assessment to the DMR, the Scottish Government committed itself to assess how the new system was working on the ground, approximately a year after implementation.
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