Scotland activates power to set planning authority training requirements

Scotland has made commencement regulations that will unlock the power to set planning authority training requirements from 2nd November 2026. The move takes a reform in the Planning (Scotland) Act 2019 a step closer to implementation, but does not itself require anyone to complete training.

The Planning (Scotland) Act 2019 (Commencement No. 15) Regulations 2026, SSI 2026/280 (C.31), were made on 1st October and laid before the Scottish Parliament on 5th October 2026. They bring section 45 into force for a deliberately limited purpose: enabling Scottish Ministers to make regulations under it.

That distinction matters for councillors, National Park authority members and anyone preparing for a planning committee. No member loses the ability to exercise a planning function because of this instrument. The training requirements, functions covered and arrangements for their application still need further legal steps.

Planning authority training power starts on 2nd November

The decisive wording appears in regulation 2(2). Section 45 is commenced “only for the purposes of enabling regulations to be made under that section”. The made instrument, which you can also read in our locally hosted official PDF therefore opens the regulation-making route without switching on the substantive prohibition.

I would not describe this as mandatory training starting in November. It is the power to make the detailed rules that starts then. The instrument contains no syllabus, approved provider, pass mark or deadline for members to complete a course.

For applicants and residents following planning authority training, there is no new basis in SSI 2026/280 alone for saying that a committee member cannot take part in a decision. Any future restriction will need to be assessed against the operative legislation and the requirements actually specified.

Local councils and National Park authorities are covered

Section 45 of the 2019 Act sets out the framework for what could follow. Under future planning authority training regulations, a member who has not fulfilled specified requirements would be prohibited from exercising specified authority functions personally or participating in their exercise through a committee or another body.

The statutory definition of planning authority includes both local authorities and National Park authorities. It also expressly includes certain appointed members of a National Park authority committee. Reducing the story to council planning committee councillors would miss part of its reach.

Ministers cannot use this section to specify any public function they choose. The functions must be conferred by the planning Acts identified in section 277 of the Town and Country Planning (Scotland) Act 1997.

Section 45 allows regulations to require completion of a training course and to require ministerial accreditation of the content and provider. It also allows Ministers to disapply the prohibition for a particular planning authority or all authorities. These are powers available within the framework, not exemptions or accreditation decisions made by this commencement instrument.

Earlier consultation focused on planning application decisions

The Scottish Government’s 2023 consultation on elected member training ran from 13th July to 26th October. Its published feedback records 120 responses: 77 from groups or organisations and 43 from individuals.

The consultation explored how planning authority training might apply, including a proposal to focus any prohibition on decisions on planning applications. The Government’s subsequent analysis acknowledged that elected members also undertake functions connected with development plans and other development management matters. The final scope of planning authority training rules remains for Ministers to settle in regulations.

That policy history helps explain why planning authority training is being advanced, but it does not settle the final list of functions. We should read the subsequent regulations when they appear rather than assume every activity mentioned in a training course will automatically become subject to the prohibition.

An online course is being developed for the 2027 elections

There is already a published delivery plan behind the legal change. In a 25th November 2025 update, the Scottish Government’s Planning Directorate said it was working with Planning Aid Scotland and the Improvement Service on a package ahead of the 2027 local government elections.

The Directorate explained: “This training will provide a baseline that Chief Planning Officers can supplement based on local needs”. Its update said the package would be hosted on the Improvement Service’s Councillor Academy portal, delivered online and incorporate a test.

The announced topics included the legal framework and development plans, application procedures, schemes of delegation, material considerations, committee reports, conditions and robust reasons for decisions. Conduct, engagement with applicants and communities, local reviews, appeals, costs and enforcement were also included.

Those topics describe the intended learning package and may inform future planning authority training, but they are not a legally prescribed syllabus or a final accreditation scheme under section 45. The detailed planning authority training requirements still depend on the regulations to come.

Three-hour modular programme outlined in Government minutes

The published minutes of the Planning Performance High Level Group meeting on 25th March 2026 provide a further progress report. They record that content and test questions had been developed with the Improvement Service and describe a modular programme estimated to take approximately three hours.

The minutes outline short tests at the end of each module, likely comprising four questions. They also describe intended testing by the Scottish Government, Heads of Planning Scotland and a sample of elected members, alongside work on guidance and supporting legislation.

These are reported development arrangements, not conditions imposed by SSI 2026/280. The earlier update planned summer 2026 testing; the material reviewed does not establish that this testing has been completed or confirm when the eventual restrictions will become operative.

What should authorities do now?

For authorities, this is a useful prompt to prepare for planning authority training, check how members will access online learning and consider how completion records might be managed. Those are practical preparations, not new duties created by the commencement regulations.

We still need the subsequent rules to establish the legally specified requirements and functions, any accreditation arrangements and the dates on which restrictions will apply. No accompanying announcement located for this instrument resolves those details.

The Scottish position must also be kept separate from reforms elsewhere in the UK. This is Scotland-only legislation. You can follow further developments in our Scotland news and Planning Policy coverage.

For now, the clear news is that the route to detailed planning authority training regulations opens on 2nd November 2026. The rules which could prevent an untrained member from exercising specified functions have not been imposed by this instrument, so planning authority training is not yet a legal precondition to taking part.