Scottish Government

Process for Ongoing Approval of Proposals on Designated Sites (under Regional Priority 9)

Note: "Designated sites" refers to SSSIs, SACs, SPAs and Ramsar sites.

1. Proposals will be processed in the normal way until committed. At the submit stage Case Officers should advise applicants whether their Proposal is likely to meet the criteria for ongoing approval. It must be made clear that final confirmation of eligibility for ongoing approval can only be given once the case is committed. When advising applicants about likely eligibility for the Ongoing Approval process, if it is close to the commit date for next RPAC round the Case Officer should take account of the following risk: if the applicant does not commit by the deadline, and it then turns out that they don't meet the Ongoing Approval criteria, they would have to wait until an RPAC in the following year.

Case Officers must consult the relevant SNH Area Officer at the submit stage, just as they would do for any other proposal affecting an SSSI or Natura site.

2. Once committed, the Case Officer must ensure the eligibility checklist is completed before proceeding any further. They should then determine whether the Proposal meets the criteria for ongoing approval. These are as follows:

• The entire Proposal contains only Regional Priority 9.
• All options selected will address Regional Priority 9.
• The total value of the Proposal does not exceed £50k. (If any Actual Cost capital items are included, please carefully examine the quotes provided and ensure that the total cost of the proposal would not exceed £50k when these are taken into account).Options may be located outside a designated site boundary, as long as they aimed specifically at addressing the qualifying features of the site, as explained in the guidance on the use of RP9.

Options may be located outside a designated site boundary, as long as they aimed specifically at addressing the qualifying features of the site, as explained in the guidance on the use of RP9.

3. If the above criteria are met, the Case Officer fills in Part 1 of the Case Proforma . (The Case Officer sets up the Proforma initially, and saves into the Back Office. Each time it is updated, please save as a new version of the original, not as a separate new document.) They then seek endorsement for use of the ongoing approval route from the relevant SNH officer (see Annex 1). This officer then fills in Part 2 of the Case Proforma. (The Case Officer may record this decision on the Case Notepad if they so wish.)

Note that the decision to use the ongoing approval route rests with SNH and does not require endorsement by the applicant.

4. If the Proposal is not considered eligible for ongoing approval, it should proceed to the RPAC in the usual way.

5. If it is eligible, the Case Officer sends the case number to the SNHSRDP help desk ( SRDP_HELP@snh.gov.uk) noting that the case is using ongoing approval. SNH central staff then enter case details from the proforma onto the SNH tracking spreadsheet.

6. The Proposal proceeds through Stage 2 Assessment and is data cleansed using Data Cleansing Checklist 2. Stage 3 scoring and assessment is carried out and the Case Officer completes the Stage 3 Scoring screen online, including the mandatory question in the Stage 3 Scoring screen to indicate that the case is using the ongoing approval route.

On the scoring sheet, the Case Officer should make clear which SSSI or Natura features the Proposal will help to bring into, or maintain in, favourable condition, and how the management will benefit the features.

If the score is 12, please send the score sheet to the SNH help desk - SRDP_HELP@snh.gov.uk

Checklist 3 (the Schedule of Works checklist) is then completed by the Case Officer.

7. The Case Officer enters the score on Part 3 of the Case Proforma and then contacts the Area Manager to seek a decision, making sure they have access to the Scoring Sheet and Eligibility Checklist, along with any relevant supporting information.

8. The SNH Area Manager makes the decision to approve or reject the Proposal on behalf of the RPAC, using their delegated authority. (Though if an Area Manager considers a case to be novel or contentious, she or he may choose to seek the views of the RPAC.) Proposals should only be approved if they meet the threshold or buffer score set by the NPAC. (The buffer set in February 2011 has been amended to give discretion to SNH to approve cases scoring 12. These can only be approved if fully meeting the requirements of the scoring criterion for National Targets - designated sites. If approving such cases, the Area Manager should enter a justification into the Case Proforma.)

The Area Manager records the decision on the Case Proforma and notifies the RPAC Chair (in some cases, the SNH Area Manager is also the RPAC Chair) and the Case Officer.

A handwritten signature is required from the Area Manager on the Case Proforma, which should then be scanned and saved in the Back Office.

9. After the Area Manager's decision, the Case Officer completes the following screens sequentially, in one operation, on the system:

• The " RPAC decision" screen
• The "Ministerial confirmation" screen

10. The Case Officer takes the case to the 'contract issue' stage, generating an " RPAC Decision letter" for the applicant. (There are not any separate versions of the "decision letters" for ongoing approval cases, so the standard versions should be used. The decision letter is not essential if the contract is being issued very soon after a case is approved.) They then issue the contract to the applicant in the usual way.

The rules on timing are the same as for cases which go to RPACs i.e. Annual Recurrent Options cannot start until 1 January, while capital items can start after contract issue, in the year agreed in the Schedule of Works.

11. Once the contract has been confirmed (or withdrawn/rejected), the Case Officer notifies the SNH help desk of the outcome ( SRDP_HELP@snh.gov.uk). The SNH central team updates the tracking spreadsheet accordingly.

SNH contacts

† south and north refer to location of case not Case Officer.

SNH email addresses: firstname.surname@snh.gov.uk

SNH contacts webpage