Mr. Craig McLaren:

From experience we got in the UK, digital planning is becoming a big thing. From my personal experience of the planning system in Scotland, for example, there is a £35 million digital planning programme there which is looking at how we can get better at improving the processes in which planning works with more online approaches to digital planning applications. Also, there are really important things around spatial data, which is really underused in many ways, using geographic information systems, GIS, to have a clear evidence-based approach in respect of spatial data. This allows us to make better and quicker decisions on things also. It can help with engagement and collaboration. If one has certain ways of engaging with different people; some of the things we have certainly found in Scotland is that the digital engagement brings in a different demographic because it only involves clicking something on one’s laptop rather than attending a church hall for a consultation event. It adds many different things. The research in Scotland has also found that it can make savings of 20% in a planner’s time, which can ensure that he or she can refocus on some of the more important things.