MOD notes the Committee’s recommendation. As indicated at paragraph 8, basing decisions are made entirely on military requirement after considered assessment and scrutiny. Local economic assessments are not routinely conducted. However, MOD will continue to work with local authorities to determine the impact of these decisions on communities and how we release surplus military sites for meaningful future use. MOD already employs dedicated locally based estate leads for all of our sites in Scotland to facilitate regular engagement with local councils. These discussions are mainly to ensure compliance with local authority statutory and regulatory powers such as town planning, environmental licences or the management of specially designated sites or buildings but are also likely to cover early engagement regarding strategic long-term development planning, and the options and potential for surplus MOD sites. Through these established links, decisions on the disposal of MOD sites in Scotland are communicated directly and immediately to the relevant local authorities to enable meaningful discussion at the earliest opportunity. MOD also notify Scottish Government (SG) ahead of listing surplus land on the internal government register, and three months ahead of commencing wider external marketing. This enables public sector bodies in Scotland, such as local authorities and housing associations, to assess their requirement for purchasing these parcels of land – the results of which can be seen in the current sale of 38 surplus military houses to Fife and Moray councils. MOD collaboration with the Scottish Government