For immediate release
20 November 2003
502/11/03

THE FUTURE OF HISTORIC ENVIRONMENT RECORDS

English Heritage today, (20 November 2003), announced details of its
response to the Department for Culture Media and Sport's (DCMS) consultation
on the future of Historic Environment Records.

An Historic Environment Record (HER) stores and provides access to important
information about the buildings, structures and monuments of a given area of
England. HERs are the network of mainly local authority based records, which
used to be known as Sites and Monuments Records. There are currently 100
HERs in England. They are maintained and updated for public benefit and
inform public policies and decision-making on land-use planning and
management.

Dr Simon Thurley, Chief Executive of English Heritage, said: "English
Heritage welcomes this consultation. Local Historic Environment Records play
a vital role in the management and conservation of our historic environment,
as well as operating a vital public service for anyone interested in the
heritage of their area. The English Heritage response shows our commitment
to these Records. It explains our role and sets out our vision for their
future."

The main points of English Heritage's response are:

*       statutory status: English Heritage urges the DCMS to make it a
statutory requirement of local authorities to maintain or ensure they have
access to a HER that conforms to at least the minimum benchmark standard;
*
*       standards: standards are absolutely essential for the improvement
and sustainability of HERs;
*
*       funding: English Heritage urges the DCMS to take the lead in
discussions on options to secure funding to help maintain and develop HERs.
The discussion should include all levels of Government with a planning
function that benefit from the use of HER data; and
*
*       access: English Heritage considers that there is an urgent need to
provide seamless digital access to all records on a local, regional and
national level. The best way to achieve this is through a Historic
Environment Portal with appropriate mediation and interpretative material
for both specialists and the general public.

English Heritage considers that there is a need to move very rapidly to a
situation where:

*       there is a network of HERs covering the country, without overlap or
duplication and that meet the international minimum standard for the storage
and collation of records;
*
*       all local authorities with planning responsibility have access to a
HER; and
*
*       all HERs are available online, they have an inclusive outreach
programme and resources are provided for their future development.

Simon Thurley added:  "The DCMS consultation on HERs is part of its wider
review of Historic Environment Protection. There are clear links between the
information on the historic environment contained in these records and the
new unified national statutory List that is proposed. Our response urges the
DCMS to ensure that the statutory status of HERs will be addressed in the
forthcoming White Paper on protecting our historic environment."

Simon Thurley concluded:  "The DCMS has just extended the consultation
period until the end of November. I urge all those with an interest in
Historic Environment Records who have not yet responded to do so."

-  Ends  -

The HER consultation including Benchmarks for Good Practice can be found on
the DCMS website at
www.culture.gov.uk/global/consultations/2003+current+consultations/her_consu
ltation.htm

The full text of our response to the DCMS, consisting of: a summary,
detailed responses to the specific questions in the consultation paper in
Annex 1 and a second annex which summarises EH's operational support for
HERs can be found on the News section our website at
www.english-heritage.org.uk

For further information please contact Duncan Bainbridge,
English Heritage Corporate Communications, on 0207 973 3297 or
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