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Dear All, In response to Alex's notice about the National Assembly for Wales Publications Scheme, the Royal Commission is not mentioned as we're an Assembly Sponsored Public Body rather than an executive agency like Cadw. We are, however, required to produce a seperate Publications Scheme, which we're currently drafting. Much information about the Commission's activities is already made available on the RCAHMW web-site (www.rcahmw.org.uk) and more is planned for the future. The draft publications scheme will be submitted to the Information Commissioner for approval and will then be available on the web-site. If anyone has any questions about FOI in relation to RCAHMW please email [log in to unmask] David ----- Original Message ----- From: Alex Hunt <[log in to unmask]> To: <[log in to unmask]> Sent: Monday, July 08, 2002 12:45 PM Subject: FW: site protection vs. access to information > sorry the full message this time! lesson learned is don't press ctrl + > enter (send) when you were aiming for ctrl + v (paste)!: > > Dear All, > > Further to the discussion on this thread about data access provisions, > colleagues in Wales and Scotland may be interested in two ongoing > consultations which touch in part on this topic. They are respectively: > > * The National Assembly for Wales is consulting on their "Publication > Scheme", which as you recall is required of public bodies (including local > authorities) under the provisions of the Freedom of Information Act 2000. > The draft scheme does include a small reference to archaeology and the > historic environment as it commits the Assembly through Cadw (as one of the > Executive Agencies) "to publish a range of advisory, informative, > specialist and commercial publications in respect of the historic > environment of Wales". Annotation in the consultation indicates that a > charge may be made for information in this category. I am not sure that this > in itself is sufficient - e.g. no mention of any publication for existing > public-record data-sets on listed buildings and Scheduled Ancient Monuments. > I am also unclear why the Royal Commission is not mentioned - does anyone > know whether this arises as a consequence of having a Royal Warrant (which > in any case makes many of the freedom of information committments we would > be looking for already)? > > The consultation can be found online at: > http://www.wales.gov.uk/keypubconsultation/content/publication-letter-e.htm > Closing date for comments by the way is 27th August 2002 > > * The Scottish Executive is consulting on "Proposals for a new regime on > Public Access to Environmental Information", which relates to the UK's > approach to implementation of the Aarhus Convention and queries the > principles that should underlie the new regime on access to environmental > information, in relplacement of the existing measures under the > Environmental Information Regulations 1992. One of the key questions is > whether the Aarhus defintion of "environment" should be the basis for the > new Environment Information regime? As you may recall, Aarhus benfits from > including "cultural sites and built structures" within the defintion of > environment. > > A similar consultation took place in England some time ago although alas I > think there was little or no historic environment input. There is therefore > perhaps an opportunity to respond more fully this time. > > The consultation can be found online at: > > http://www.scotland.gov.uk/library5/environment/paei-00.asp > > Deadline for comments is 9th August. > > Hope this is of interest/use > > Best wishes > > Alex Hunt > Research and Conservation Officer > Council for British Archaeology >