§ Mr. Bill WalkerTo ask the Secretary of State for Scotland if he will make a statement on the main conclusions of the policy review of the Royal Commission on the ancient and historical monuments of Scotland.
§ Lord James Douglas-HamiltonAs part of the Government's programme of periodic reviews of non-departmental public bodies, a policy review has been undertaken of the activities and functions of the Royal Commission on the ancient and historical monuments of Scotland (RCAHMS) and the equivalent bodies for England and Wales. This review is being conducted jointly with my right hon. Friends the Secretaries of State for the Environment and for Wales. We shall be announcing the detailed conclusions of the review in due course.
There are however certain major issues of principle arising from the review which my right hon. and learned Friend has decided can be settled now, in advance of the 585W completion of the review. These are the question of whether the RCAHMS should be retained, the organisational and management arrangements of the royal commission, and the scope for transfer of heritage functions to the royal commission.
The review has established that the task of creating and maintaining a national heritage archive remains a necessary and important feature of heritage policy. We have concluded that the RCAHMS should remain as a separate body charged with performing this function and designated as the national body for survey and recording of historic building and ancient monuments.
We have also decided that the royal commission's activities should be more closely aligned with wider considerations of heritage policy. To facilitate this, the historic buildings and monuments directorate of the Scottish Development Department will become sponsoring Department for the RCAHMS. This will be accompanied by changes in the management operations of the commission to bring it into line with current practice. These will include the institution of a corporate planning system, the development of performance measures and indicators, and the provision of a financial memorandum.
The study by outside consultants which formed the first stage in the policy review suggested that there might be scope for transferring certain heritage functions from the directorate of the RCAHMS. These functions included some features of responsibility for the listing of historic buildings, the scheduling of ancient monuments, and rescue archaeology. My right hon. and learned Friend has, however, concluded that the existing arrangements for the listing of historic buildings and the scheduling of ancient monuments remain appropriate. Listing and scheduling are linked to considerations of conservation rather than of survey and record. As regards funding of rescue archaeology, the arguments of principle for and against a transfer are finely balanced, but we have concluded that transferring this responsibility to the RCAHMS is not practicable at this stage.
With these issues of principle now resolved, we consider that the review has mapped out a clear role for the royal commission in the future conservation of our heritage and has identified the organisational and management arrangements necessary to assist the commission in discharging this role to the full. I have written to the chairman of the RCAHMS to inform him of our conclusions.