Swapping the policy framework for a devolved application

A draft written against the National Planning Policy Framework and an English local plan cannot be edited into a Welsh, Scottish or Northern Irish document. The policy section has to be taken out and rebuilt against the right national framework, because the structure of the test differs rather than only the wording. PlanScope's drafting pipeline is grounded in the NPPF, English local plans and English procedure, so a devolved application needs the policy section replaced and the whole draft checked by someone who practises in that jurisdiction.

This is a substitution exercise, and it is worth doing in a fixed order so that nothing is left half-English.

Why substitution rather than adjustment

Three differences make editing unsafe. The hierarchy of documents is arranged differently: Scotland's National Planning Framework 4 forms part of the statutory development plan, which is not the position of the NPPF in England. The policy tests differ: Wales applies a placemaking framework with its own sustainable placemaking outcomes, and Northern Ireland works from a Strategic Planning Policy Statement with retained policy statements beneath it. And the procedure differs: application types, consultation arrangements, fee schedules and appeal routes all have their own rules.

A draft that retains an English paragraph structure with devolved policy names dropped in reads as what it is. Reviewers and officers notice, and it undermines the rest of the document.

What has to be replaced in Wales

The national framework is Planning Policy Wales, supported by Technical Advice Notes on subjects including flooding, noise, nature conservation, archaeology and planning obligations, and by Future Wales as the national development framework. The statutory plan is the Local Development Plan, and in some areas a Strategic Development Plan sits above it.

The swaps to make are specific:

• References to the NPPF become references to Planning Policy Wales, with the edition stated.
• Flood risk policy follows the Welsh approach and the Welsh flood map rather than the Environment Agency Flood Map for Planning.
• Natural Resources Wales replaces both the Environment Agency and Natural England as regulator and consultee.
• Cadw replaces Historic England on the historic environment, including listed building consent.
• The well-being duties under the Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015 apply to the authority's decision making.

Biodiversity duties differ as well. The mandatory net gain regime introduced in England by the Environment Act 2021 does not apply in the same form, so a draft asserting a 10 per cent requirement in a Welsh application is stating something that is not the law there. Welsh authorities apply their own biodiversity and resilience duties instead, and the evidence they ask for follows from those.

What has to be replaced in Scotland

National Planning Framework 4 is part of the development plan, alongside the Local Development Plan, and that single fact changes the way the policy argument is written. In England the argument runs from the development plan with the Framework as a material consideration. In Scotland the national policies are applied directly.

Replace the consultees as well: NatureScot for nature conservation, Historic Environment Scotland for heritage and listed building consent, and the Scottish Environment Protection Agency for flood risk and environmental regulation. Procedure differs too, with pre-application consultation requirements for major development, a different appeal and review structure including local review bodies for certain decisions, and separate fee regulations. Permitted development classes sit in the Scottish General Permitted Development Order rather than the 2015 English Order, so class letters do not translate.

Northern Ireland and its policy statement

Planning in Northern Ireland sits with the eleven councils under the Planning Act (Northern Ireland) 2011, with the Department for Infrastructure handling regionally significant development. The Strategic Planning Policy Statement provides the policy framework, with retained planning policy statements continuing to apply where the Statement has not superseded them, and councils are at different stages of adopting Local Development Plans.

Consultees change again: the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs covers environmental regulation and natural heritage, and historic environment functions sit within the Department for Communities. Permitted development is set by Northern Ireland's own development order. A draft that cites English class letters or an English local plan policy number in a Northern Ireland application will be read as unchecked.

Permitted development differences

This is where a careless substitution does the most damage, because class letters look transferable and are not. Household extension allowances, outbuilding rules, agricultural rights and change of use classes all differ between the four nations, and the English Use Classes Order amendments of 2020 that created Class E have no direct equivalent across the border.

Never carry an English class reference into a devolved document. Rewrite the paragraph from the relevant national order, and if the point is that the works are lawful without permission, say which order and class you are relying on. A certificate of lawfulness under the relevant national legislation remains the only formal way to confirm that works are lawful, and the section numbers differ.

A worked statement structure

A policy section that survives review in any of the three devolved nations tends to follow the same shape:

1. The statutory basis for the decision, cited from that nation's planning legislation.
2. The development plan: the adopted plan name, its adoption date, and the policies engaged, quoted accurately.
3. The national framework: Planning Policy Wales, National Planning Framework 4 or the Strategic Planning Policy Statement, with the edition and date.
4. Supporting national guidance: Technical Advice Notes, Scottish planning guidance or retained policy statements.
5. The site-specific assessment against each policy in turn.
6. The planning balance, expressed in the terms that nation's framework uses.

Keep the site description, the drawings schedule, the heritage description and the technical appendices. Those are facts about the site and they do not change with the jurisdiction. It is the policy spine that has to be rebuilt, which is also the part our note on what drafts get right about structure and wrong about evidence identifies as the weakest part of any automated draft.

Who should check it before submission

Someone who practises in that jurisdiction. Not a careful reader of the national framework, and not an English planner working from the website.

The checks worth asking for by name: every policy reference verified against the adopted plan and the current national framework, every consultee named correctly, the application type and fee confirmed against that nation's regulations, permitted development references rewritten from the right order, and any statutory duty specific to that nation addressed. A reviewer from the professional directory can take that on, and the review request flow records what was checked and when, which matters if the submission is later questioned. Where the draft is being produced on a paid tier, the pricing page sets out what editing and versioning the tier includes so the reviewer's changes can be carried back into the document properly.

Explaining the limits of the draft to a client is its own task, and our note on explaining an AI-assisted draft to a client or a committee covers how to do it without overstating what the document is.

PlanScope provides AI-assisted draft reports for planning applications. Reports should be reviewed before submission. We do not guarantee planning approval. For specialist technical reports, qualified professional input may be required.