Annual report to the Inter-Ministerial Standing Committee, 2021 to 2022
Published 5 August 2024
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Summary of the aims of the Common Framework
The primary focus of this agreement is to maintain the principles and objectives of retained EU legislation across the hazardous substances planning regime, that is, primarily, to prevent onshore major accidents involving hazardous substances and limit the consequences to people and/or the environment of any accidents that do take place. It also seeks to, wherever possible, facilitate the sharing of information on a multilateral basis.
Overview of the reporting period
Following the laying of the Common Framework in March 2021, officials from the four administrations met each quarter with a standing agenda:
- review of ongoing functioning of the Common Framework
- updates from administrations on relevant policy matters
- matters in dispute / for escalation
- agreeing schedule for future meetings
Over the first year of reporting, the four administrations have not needed to utilise any of the dispute resolution mechanisms or to escalate any matters flowing from the subject matter of the Common Framework.
While not engaging any of the mechanisms under the framework, the Town and Country Planning (Hazardous Substances) (Scotland) Regulations 2015 have been amended by The Town and Country Planning (Miscellaneous Amendment) (Scotland) Regulations 2022 (which came into force on 1 December 2022). This was a minor change to simply clarify the ‘addition rule’ calculation formula, which brought the wording into alignment with that of the English regulations which had been amended in 2017.
As reviews should be proportionate to the substance of the framework, and given that only one policy issue was reported over the whole year, it was agreed that stakeholder involvement would be disproportionate for this review cycle.
Officials have agreed that the Framework is operating effectively as a tool to ensure open communication between the four nations.
Forward look
Going forward, officials have identified the Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Bill as a matter that will need to be considered in the context of the Common Framework. Meetings between the four nations will continue on a bi-annual basis and will be kept under review with the option for any party to convene a meeting as required.