20.Section 6(1)(a) provides that plans and programmes relating exclusively to individual schools are excluded because it is considered that such developments will have no strategic element to which environmental assessment could be applied and would not be likely to have significant environmental effects. Subsection (2) provides a power to modify section 6(1)(a) should circumstances arise where the exclusion of such plans and programmes, or some of them, from the provisions of the Act is no longer appropriate.
21.Section 6(1)(b) provides powers for the Scottish Ministers to specify further exclusions by order. The intention of section 6(1)(b) is to ensure that it will be possible to exclude certain types of plans and programmes, which are proved, over time, to have no need for an environmental assessment. This will help to ensure that the Act provisions are targeted appropriately at plans and programmes which are likely to have significant effects on the environment. The proposed powers in section 6(1)(b) and (2) are limited by section 6(3) so that they may only be used to exclude plans and programmes under sections 6(1)(a) and 6(1)(b) which, in the opinion of the Scottish Ministers, are likely to have no effect or minimal effect in relation to the environment