Scottish Government published this non-prescriptive guidance on 14 December 2023. It explains further the Play Sufficiency Assessment (PSA) regulations, which came into force in May 2023. It also provides suggestions for how to do PSAs.

Publication before the end of 2023 was trailed by Scottish Government in the September 2023 update of the National Planning Framework 4 delivery plan. The guidance includes the following statements:

 "5. The purpose of this guidance is to help explain and/or expand, where appropriate, the intention of the provisions in the Regulations. It includes suggestions for potential considerations, indicators and possible data sources that may be helpful to use in the preparation of PSAs."

"6. The guidance is not exhaustive, nor is it intended to be prescriptive. In preparing PSAs, it will be important to consider local context and circumstances, thus tailoring the information gathering, engagement and assessment to suit."

The content of the guidance appears to draw mainly on materials from the Scottish Government consultation process on PSA and on Open Space Strategy and Audit regulations in late 2021 and early 2022. There is therefore unlikely to be anything in it surprising to specialists who have been already tracking and working on this issue.

 The full Play Sufficiency Assessment guidance is at

Scottish Government Planning Guidance: Play Sufficiency Assessment - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

The regulations themselves can be found here:  The Town and Country Planning (Play Sufficiency Assessment) (Scotland) Regulations 2023 (legislation.gov.uk)