Editing Scheduled monument (section)

==Heritage protection legislation for scheduled monuments==

There is no positive distinction yet for a single method of registering sites of heritage. The long tradition of legal issues did not lead to a condensed register nor to any single authority to take care of over the course of the last 130 years.

The UK is a signatory to the [[Council of Europe]]'s [[Valletta Treaty]] which obliges it to have a legal system to protect archaeological heritage on land and under water.<ref name="DCMS Scheduled Monuments"/> The body of designation legislation used for legally protecting heritage assets from damage and destruction is complex, and dates back to 1882.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/caring/listing/scheduled-monuments/ |title=Scheduled Monuments |publisher=English Heritage |access-date=24 May 2011 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140924064729/http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/caring/listing/scheduled-monuments/ |archive-date=24 September 2014 |df=dmy-all }}</ref> There have been many revisions since, and the UK government states that it remains committed to heritage protection legislation reform,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Governmentcitizensandrights/UKgovernment/Parliament/DG_077964 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20120803163720/http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Governmentcitizensandrights/UKgovernment/Parliament/DG_077964 |url-status=dead |archive-date=3 August 2012 |title=Heritage Protection Bill |work=Directgov |publisher=UK Government |access-date=7 June 2011 }}</ref> even though the draft Heritage Protection Bill 2008,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.official-documents.gov.uk/document/cm73/7349/7349.pdf |title=Draft Heritage Protection Bill |date=April 2009 |publisher=Department for Culture, Media and Sport |access-date=8 June 2011 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120112192138/http://www.official-documents.gov.uk/document/cm73/7349/7349.pdf |archive-date=12 January 2012 |df=dmy-all }}</ref> which proposed a single 'register' that included scheduled monuments and listed buildings, was abandoned to make room in the parliamentary legislative programme for measures to deal with the credit crunch.<ref name="buildingconservation">{{cite web |url=http://www.buildingconservation.com/articles/heritagepbill/heritagepbill.htm |title=The Heritage Protection Bill: Fundamental reform for England and Wales? |work=BuildingConservation.com |author=Mascall, Roger |date=18 December 2009 |access-date=7 June 2011 |publisher=Cathedral Communications |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110916213534/http://www.buildingconservation.com/articles/heritagepbill/heritagepbill.htm |archive-date=16 September 2011 |df=dmy-all }}</ref>

The scheduling system has been criticised by some as being cumbersome.<ref name="buildingconservation"/> In England and Wales it also has a limited definition of what constitutes a monument. Features such as [[ritual landscape]]s, battlefields and flint scatters are difficult to schedule; recent amendment in Scotland (see below) has widened the definition to include "any site... comprising any thing, or group of things, that evidences previous human activity".<ref>{{cite web |title=Designation Policy and Selection Guidance |url=https://www.historicenvironment.scot/archives-and-research/publications/publication/?publicationId=8d8bbaeb-ce5a-46c1-a558-aa2500ff7d3b |publisher=Historic Environment Scotland |access-date=30 June 2020}}</ref>

The wide range of legislation means that the terminology describing how historic sites are protected varies according to the type of heritage asset. Monuments are "scheduled", buildings are "listed", whilst battlefields, parks and gardens are "registered", and historic wrecks are "protected". Historic urban spaces receive protection through designation as "[[conservation area]]s",<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1990/9/contents |title=Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 |access-date=7 June 2011 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121212100147/http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1990/9/contents |archive-date=12 December 2012 |df=dmy-all }}</ref> and historic landscapes are designated through [[national park]] and [[Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty]] (AONB) legislation.<ref>{{cite web  |url=http://www.naturalengland.org.uk/ourwork/landscape/protection/default.aspx  |title=How are landscapes protected?  |publisher=Natural England  |access-date=7 June 2011  |url-status=live  |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110902115613/http://www.naturalengland.org.uk/ourwork/landscape/protection/default.aspx  |archive-date=2 September 2011  |df=dmy-all  }}</ref> In addition, there are areas in the UK are also protected as [[World Heritage Site]]s.

To add to the confusion, some heritage assets can be both listed buildings and scheduled monuments (e.g. [[Dunblane Cathedral]]). World Heritage Sites, conservation areas and protected landscapes can also contain both scheduled monuments and listed buildings.<ref name="DCMS Scheduled Monuments"/> Where a heritage asset is both scheduled and listed, many provisions of the listing legislation are dis-applied (for example those relating to building preservation notices).

In England, Scotland and Wales, protection of monuments can also be given by another process, additional to or separate from scheduling, taking the monument into state ownership or placing it under guardianship, classifying it as a guardianship monument under the terms of Section 12 of the 1979 Act (as amended by the [[National Heritage Act 1983]] in England, and by the Historic Environment (Amendment) (Scotland) Act 2011) (e.g. [[St Rule's Church]] in St Andrews). The latter meaning that the owner retains possession, while the appropriate national heritage body maintains it and (usually) opens it to the public. All monuments in guardianship on the passing of the 1979 Act were automatically included in the 'schedule'.

Scheduling is not usually applied to underwater sites although historic wrecks can be protected under the [[Protection of Wrecks Act 1973]],<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1973/33 |title=Protection of Wrecks Act 1973 |access-date=7 June 2011}}</ref> although three maritime sites have been designated as scheduled monuments. In Scotland new powers for protection of the marine heritage, better integrated with other maritime conservation powers, have been given by the Marine (Scotland) Act 2010.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/marine/seamanagement/marineact |title=Marine (Scotland) Act |publisher=Scottish Government |date=March 2010 |access-date=8 June 2011 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110606183516/http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/marine/seamanagement/marineact |archive-date=6 June 2011 |df=dmy-all }}</ref> It is intended that the marine scheduled monuments will be protected by this new Act. The Historic Environment (Amendment) (Scotland) Act, which amended the 1979 Act, was passed into law in 2011.<ref name="act">{{cite web |url=http://www.legislation.gov.uk/asp/2011/3/contents/enacted  |title=Historic Environment (Amendment) (Scotland) Act 2011  |access-date=8 June 2011}}</ref>

Wider areas can be protected by designating their locations as Areas of Archaeological Importance (AAI) under the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Areas Act 1979.<ref name="AMAA1979"/> As of 2011, only five city centres in England have been designated as AAIs (Canterbury, Chester, Exeter, Hereford and York).<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.canterburytrust.co.uk/the-business/discharging-your-planning-condition/areas-of-archaeological-importance/ |title=Planning Consultation |publisher=Canterbury Archaeological Trust |access-date=8 June 2011 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110603103127/http://www.canterburytrust.co.uk/the-business/discharging-your-planning-condition/areas-of-archaeological-importance/ |archive-date=3 June 2011 |df=dmy-all }}</ref> This part of the 1979 Act was never brought into effect in Scotland.