Part 13: General Schedule 7: Plan making Section 15CA: Local plans: preparation and further provision Effect
Subsection (1) requires the local plan to be prepared in accordance with the relevant local plan timetable.
	Subsection (2) requires that local plans must be in general conformity with the spatial development strategy, if one is operative in relation to the relevant area.
	Subsection (3) sets out that a local planning authority must seek observations or advice in relation to a proposed local plan, from an independent person appointed by the Secretary of Sate, at prescribed times. Any observations or advice received must be published by the local planning authority as soon as reasonably practicable, as set out in subsection (4).
	Subsection (4) allows the Secretary of State to require a local planning authority to reimburse the Secretary of State for expenditure incurred in connection with appointing a person to provide observations or advice on a proposed local plan or to pay any fees and expenses of that person.
	These collectively, together with subsection (6)(a), (which requires the local planning authority to have regard to any observations or advice received under subsection (3)), and subsections (8)(c)-(e), (which allow the Secretary of State to introduce regulations around the nature of the advice or observations, any information or documents to be provided by the authority, and the form and content of this information and the advice), enable the introduction of mandatory local plan gateway checks by an independent person during the preparation of the local plan. The intention is to introduce, via regulations, details of local plan gateway checks, that will take place before a local plan is submitted for examination to support local planning authorities and reduce that risk that plans are found unsound at examination.
	Subsection (6) requires a local planning authority, in preparing its local plan, to have regard to a number of other things listed (under subsections (6)(a)-(i)): other parts of the development plan and polices of the devolved administrations if an authority is adjacent to another authority in Scotland or Wales; national development management policies (as defined at section 38ZA of the Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act 2004, inserted by section 94 of this Act); any response to plan consultations; any relevant neighbourhood priorities statements ; any other national policies and advice published by the Secretary of State in guidance; any other part of the development plan operative in the authorities area; and such other matters as may be prescribed by the Secretary of State in regulations.
	Subsection (7) clarifies that a local plan only has effect once adopted or approved under Part 2 of the Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act 2004.
	Subsection (8) sets out various matters which regulations made by the Secretary of State in relation to this section may do. These include a power to regulate the form and content of the plan and other documents prepared in connection with the plan ((a) and (b)), which may be used to define an indicative table of contents for a plan, prescribe templates which may be used by a local planning authority, or set out parameters around the map-based elements of the plan (as set out in regulation 9 of the Town and Country Planning (Local Planning) (England) Regulations 2012 (S.I. 2012/767)). The power at (f) may be used to prescribe when the local planning authority is to have regard to something mentioned in subsection (6), while the power at (g) would enable the Secretary of State to set out when a local planning authority must do something in connection with preparing plans, to allow fixed timeframes to be established for different parts of the plan preparation process.