What principal considerations it or its agencies must have in making decisions about the future use of ancient and historic buildings, sche…

When making decisions and/orproviding advice on the future use of scheduled ancient monuments, listed buildings,protected wrecks and sites included on the inventory of gardens and designed landscapeseach case has to be considered on its own facts and circumstances. In general theprincipal considerations will include the relevant legislative and policy framework,the nature and significance of the historic asset the subject of the proposal forchange requiring consent, an assessment of the impacts of the proposed change onthe historic asset, the risks associated with any change of use and any other relevantconsiderations.
In relation to nationally importantsites protected as scheduled monuments under the Ancient Monuments and ArchaeologicalAreas Act 1979 an important general principle is that as far as possible scheduledmonuments should be preserved in the state that they have come down to us and thatany proposed works therefore should be the minimum necessary consistent with thepreservation of the monument unless there are exceptional circumstances.
Historic Scotland is publishinga series of Scottish Historic Environment Policies (SHEP) which will set out Scottishministers’ vision and strategic policies for the wider historic environment. SHEP 2: Scheduling: protecting Scotland’s nationallyimportant monuments has been published in final form.