Section 9 - Corporate planning
67.Section 9 places a duty on Historic Environment Scotland to prepare a corporate plan at the beginning of each planning period which must be submitted to the Scottish Ministers for approval. Subsection (2) outlines what such a plan must contain, subsection (3) describes the method for its approval and subsection (4) requires the plan once approved to be published and laid before the Scottish Parliament. Subsections (5) and (6) allow for modifications to the agreed plan. Subsection (7) sets the normal planning period as 3 years and allows for a different period for the initial plan (to be specified by Ministers by order), while subsection (8) allows for the normal planning period to be varied by order of Ministers – if for example experience shows that a longer or shorter period is better suited to the cycle of planning and resource allocation. Ministers will be also able to offer directions and guidance on the content and presentation of corporate plans under the provisions of section 13 (see below) if this is necessary.