Ancient Monuments and Historic Buildings (Hansard, 15 June 1982)

§ Mr. Nicholas Edwards

When my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for the Environment issued a consultation paper last November on proposed changes in the arrangements for ancient monuments and historic buildings in England, I took the opportunity to seek the views of interested bodies in Wales on existing arrangements there and whether they should be retained or modified along the lines proposed for England or in any other manner.

I am grateful to those who responded. A substantial majority of them were clearly against the implementation of major changes in arrangements in Wales. In particular, my statutory advisory bodies, the Historic Buildings Council for Wales and the Ancient Monuments Board for Wales, as well as the Royal Commission on Ancient and Historical Monuments in Wales, considered that the proposals would not be appropriate in the Principality. They expressed the view that the present arrangements work very well.

I accept and endorse these conclusions and therefore intend to continue with the present arrangements in Wales. The scale of our ancient monuments and historic buildings operation is very much smaller than that in England and consequently there would be much greater difficulty in dividing functions and resources between myself and a new agency. Moreover, arrangements, for instance for rescue archaeology, are already different in the two countries and I am fully satisfied that those in Wales suit our particular needs and circumstances.

Nonetheless, there is undoubtedly scope for improvement on the basis of present arrangements and the consultation process has been most useful in focusing attention in this direction. In my consultation note I referred to proposals for streamlining the organisation of that part of my Department dealing with ancient monuments and historic buildings. Following a detailed review, changes have been implemented with the result that these areas of work have been integrated within a tighter and more effective management structure. A further change which I suggested, and which recieved a wide measure of support, was that monuments in my care should be made more attractive to visitors without spoiling their character and appearance or otherwise detracting from their historic and cultural interest. Work is already underway on this and I am sure it will lead to further improvements. I shall watch with care developments in England and review the exercise of my separate responsibilities in Wales in the light of those developments.