A document which provides a framework for the protection and management of the historic environment has been replaced…
The ‘Historic Environment Scotland (HES) Policy Statement’ has replaced former framework document ‘Scottish Historical Environment Policy’ (SHEP). The documents were created to provide information on the protection and management of Scotland’s historic environment.
The policy document was updated following the merger of two organisations in October last year. Historic Scotland and the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland (RCAHMS) became Historic Environment Scotland—a non-departmental public body. It overtook many of the responsibilities of the two organisations, including regulatory and advisory activities undertaken on behalf of Scottish Ministers.
The new body Historic Environment Scotland (HES) will deliver Scotland’s first strategy for the historic environment, Our Place in Time.
Historic Environment Scotland’s director of heritage management Barbara Cummins said: “SHEP was written at a time when Historic Scotland carried out regulatory work on behalf of Scottish Ministers, however our new role means that some of the content had to be updated.
“We took the opportunity to create a new document, which reflected these changes in our role and simplified some of the processes in the policy.
“We don’t anticipate there being any impact on regulatory authorities, as the Policy Statement is a continuation of existing policy, but we have published guidelines on our website, and are available to answer any questions that arise.
“As an organisation we continually strive to improve our policies, ensuring they reflect the needs of modern society. As part of this we are currently preparing a wide-ranging scoping exercise to ask the Scottish public what they value about the historic environment, which will be used to inform the further development of the policy statement.”
The new Historic Environment Scotland Policy Statement can be viewed here: https://www.historicenvironment.scot/archives-and-research/publications/publication/?publicationId=f413711b-bb7b-4a8d-a3e8-a619008ca8b5
