When it will publish a report on the review of the structure and functions of Historic Scotland.

The Scottish Executive has today issued the report of the review of the structure and functions of Historic Scotland. The review report includes 20 recommendations in total. Notably, the review has concluded that all of the functions currentlydelivered by Historic Scotland are required and recommends that they should bedelivered by a single central organisation. The review has recommended thatHistoric Scotland should remain as an Executive Agency within the Scottish Executive Education Department. The review has identified a clear need forcultural change within the organisation. As part of this process independentexternal members should be appointed to Historic Scotland’s management board.The review has also recommended changes to the process for dealing with public localinquiries in relation to listed buildings and scheduled monument consent applications;making the secretariat for the Historic Environment Advisory Council forScotland (HEACS) independent of Historic Scotland and identified areas forfurther engagement with stakeholders, including through the development of anoverarching policy statement.
I have accepted all of thereview recommendations and work is in hand to implement many of the necessarychanges. Specifically, I have directed the Chief Executive of Historic Scotlandto begin work on an organisational change programme to deliver the culturalchanges identified through the review process. To facilitate the development ofan overarching policy statement I am today publishing a paper outlining the keyprinciples which will underpin such policy statement to form the basis ofdiscussions with stakeholders (Bib. number 30997).
Copies of the report will beavailable on the Scottish Executive website and copies have been placed in the Parliament’s Reference Centre (Bib. number 30679). Copies of the Analysis of Responses to “Review of Historic Scotland” consultation process are also available (Bib. number 30680).