HC Deb 03 July 1962 vol 662 cc31-3W
Mr. Fletcher

asked the Financial Secretary to the Treasury if he will now make a statement about the work of the Ministerial Working Group on ancient monuments and historic buildings which has been sitting under his chairmanship.

Sir E. Boyle

The Working Group set up following my announcement in the Adjournment Debate on 24th May, 1960, with the terms of reference outlined by my right hon. Friend, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, on 22nd November, 1960, has now concluded its inquiries and its main conclusions have been endorsed by the Government.

It took evidence from a number of quarters and was greatly helped by the examination of some of the problems which had already been undertaken by the Select Committee on Estimates (Fifth Report 1959–60).

The Working Group found that there was little overlapping of effort between the various official bodies engaged in some degree in the task of identifying and recording ancient monuments, sites or buildings of historical or architectural importance. These are the Ministry of Works, the Ministry of Housing and Local Government, the three Royal Commissions on Ancient and Historical Monuments, the Ordnance Survey and the National Buildings Record. The Group seriously considered the suggestion that a single centralised organisation should be created to cover the whole of the Government's effort in this field, but concluded that such an arrangement was neither necessary nor practicable, though a greater degree of formal co-ordination of effort and certain organisational and functional adjustments were desirable.

The main proposals arising from the work of the Group are as follows:—

  1. (i) Co-ordination and oversight of the work in this field of the various bodies concerned should be entrusted to a new Standing Committee on the Recording of Ancient Monuments and Historic Buildings under Ministerial chairmanship.
  2. (ii) The important collection of photographs and measured drawings belonging to the National Buildings Record should, subject to the agreement of the Council of the National Buildings Record, be transferred to the Royal Commission on Historical Monuments (England) and to the 33 Royal Commission on Ancient Monuments (Wales and Monmouthshire). The Royal Commissions would assume responsibility for the functions of the National Buildings Record.
  3. (iii) The membership of the three Royal Commissions should be for a period of years and not for life as at present.
  4. (iv) The Royal Commissions should be more selective in their work and should make no further extensions in their terminal dates at least until the burden of work implied by their present Terms of Reference has been considerably reduced.
  5. (v) There should be some reduction in the intensity of the archaeological work carried out by the Ordnance Survey.