Government failing to protect heritage

The APPAG report

The update to the original report

A far-reaching report into the state of British archaeology has revealed that weak government support is putting the country’s heritage at risk.

The first All-Party Parliamentary Archaeology Group (APPAG) report – the result of the most in-depth parliamentary investigation into archaeology ever – shows that the Department of Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) is failing to take the lead and employs no archaeologists.

‘It is a bit of a mess,’ commented Lord Redesdale, the Group’s secretary and chairman of the working party. ‘Responsibilities are spread thinly between four departments and Britain’s heritage is falling through the cracks created by a lack of joined-up thinking.’

‘Some of the evidence our committee hearings collected suggested a lack of clarity on a subject that has huge public support and interest. I think this report will highlight a wide range of issues that need to be tackled by government departments.’

The report shows that, despite huge public interest in the subject, the tools for accessing the past are poor in local communities. The teaching of archaeology in schools is patchy and information sources about sites and artefacts found around the country are on the whole inadequately funded. With local museums under threat, APPAG recommends that local authorities have a legal duty to provide local people with museums in their area.

Altogether it makes ten key recommendations (see ‘Executive Summary’ below) which will direct changes in legislation and government policy.

The Group used the views of more than 250 individuals and organisations involved in archaeology and heritage as the basis of the report, which covers all the issues that most concern both professional and amateur archaeologists. It also conducted a series of select committee-style sessions to examine the roles of key organisations and to gain greater insight into some of the current concerns that exist about the neglect of archaeology in the UK.

Executive summary to the APPAG report

The All-Party Parliamentary Archaeology Group (APPAG) was set up in July 2001 to act as a focus for Parliamentary interest in all matters relating to archaeology in the United Kingdom. It currently has 139 members in both Houses of Parliament. APPAG represents all shades of political opinion and has no affiliation to any other special interest groups. The Report aims to reflect the concerns of all those with an interest in archaeology, both professional and amateur. To this end, APPAG appealed in 2001 for written submissions on the current state of archaeology in the UK and received 262 responses from a wide range of organisations and individuals. In addition representatives from a number of key bodies were invited to answer questions arising from the submissions in a series of select committee sessions in June, July and October 2002. Finally evidence was taken from an open meeting on 7 December 2002, enabling other archaeologists and members of the public to add their views.

The Group can confirm that archaeology is the subject of considerable and growing public interest. The Government, however, needs to make much greater acknowledgement that the remains of the past, both moveable and immoveable and also including the intangible – the historic environment – should be protected and preserved for their own sake and for the benefit of future generations. The past is a fragile and non-renewable resource and must be properly protected and preserved. The Government’s priorities are expressed in terms of broadening access to and developing the educational potential of the cultural sector. These aims, while worthy in themselves, force Government-funded bodies with responsibilities for archaeology to divert attention away from what should be their core aims, to identify, protect and sustain the historic environment, towards these other goals. National agencies, national and regional museums find that their activities are increasingly skewed to those initiatives for which the Government is sometimes willing to provide funding, but which do not necessarily correspond to the wider priorities. Without the preservation of this fundamental resource, there will be nothing left to provide access to or to educate people about.

In the report a total of 48 recommendations have been identified as having current priority. Ten of these have been selected as key recommendations:

The Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) should adopt a new high-level objective of defining, protecting and sustaining the historic environment for the benefit of our own and future generations and it should accept the full consequences of this both in its own spending plans and in the business plans of its sponsored bodies; and the devolved administrations should be encouraged to do likewise. DCMS should also establish an inter-departmental committee on archaeology, at ministerial level, chaired by the DCMS and including the Office of Deputy Prime Minister (ODPM), the Department for Education and Skills (DfES) and the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) and representatives from the devolved administrations, whose remit should be to co-ordinate Government policy on archaeology. This committee should meet at least twice a year and minutes of its discussions should be published. This committee should be serviced by a strengthened team to provide policy advice at the DCMS, at least one of whom should be an expert on archaeology seconded to the Department.

There is a need for a single non-governmental organisation to lobby for archaeology. The Council for British Archaeology (CBA), the Institute of Field Archaeologists (IFA) and the Institute of Historic Building Conservation (IHBC) (and possibly other umbrella organisations) should be encouraged to institute a review, under an independent chair, in order to clarify and re-define (or merge) their respective functions. APPAG stands ready to advise on this process.

There is an urgent need to improve pay and conditions for employment in field archaeology so that they are commensurate with graduate entry level in allied professions, such as local authority planning officers, civil engineers and university lecturers. The IFA, working with English Heritage (EH) and the other national heritage agencies and Prospect, should create a structure for training and qualifications related to career development that will set standards for best practice in archaeological work, one in which employers are obliged to support the continuing professional development of staff. Only those contractors that meet these standards should be eligible to bid for developer-funded work. In the longer term, the current fragmented commercial unit system, which has resulted from competitive tendering, should be replaced with a more stable regional, or more local, framework of archaeological organisations.

In support of Article 3 of the Valletta Convention, the Government should ensure that a voluntary Code of Conduct is implemented to cover archaeological investigations, with appropriate resources being made available as necessary and monitored to assess its effectiveness. The Code of Conduct should enable developer-funded evaluations, excavations, watching briefs and other fieldwork to allow volunteers to take part without undermining the position of the professionals.

Sites and Monuments Records (SMRs) should be made statutory with additional funding from central Government to ensure that they meet a minimum standard of content and service delivery. Public accessibility should be improved, and recognition of the community and educational value of SMRs must be included in their development. The national, regional and local SMRs need to be reviewed to streamline the infrastructure. There is a need for increased access to SMRs through a single Internet portal.

Urgent consideration should be given to replacing the present system of competitive tendering in developer-funded archaeological investigations by a more stable regional, or more local, franchise system, requiring review at regular intervals. Franchises should be offered after consultation with the relevant local and national authorities. The mechanisms of who awards the franchises will need to be discussed taking into account local circumstances. Such a system would also ensure greater public accessibility to the past, and also improved protection of the archaeological resource.

The system of class consents permitted by the 1979 Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Areas Act, whereby Scheduled Ancient Monuments continue to be damaged by agricultural operations, should be abolished.

The Government should give long-term support to the network of finds liaison officers which is to be established across the whole of England and Wales next year under the Portable Antiquities Scheme, since the current lottery funding will end in April 2006. Such a development needs to be seen in the context of both regional and local museums as well as inputs to SMRs. The Government should also provide resources to provide analogous schemes in Scotland and Northern Ireland, adapted to local conditions.

There is an urgent need to boost the teaching of archaeology in schools. Teacher training courses should be made more accessible to those with a single honours degree in archaeology and national curricula should be reviewed to include the historic environment in all relevant courses. Prehistory should be part of all national curricula.

The future of the Renaissance in the Regions project should be reviewed in the light of the Government’s recent disappointing spending settlement. At the same time the role of national and local museums needs to be clarified and regularised. Every local authority should be given a statutory legal duty to provide adequate public museum provision to meet the reasonable needs of those whose residence or place of work is within the area of the authority, or who are undergoing full-time education within that area, and for contributing to the costs of maintaining those services whether provided by the authority or not.

The full APPAG 2003 report can be downloaded here. You will require Adobe's Acrobat Reader software to view the report. The reader software can be freely downloaded from Adobe's website if you do not already have a copy.

Printed copies are also available from the Society of Antiquaries by sending a cheque for £3.00 (made out to ‘Society of Antiquaries’) to:
The Society of Antiquaries,
Burlington House,
Piccadilly,
London
W1J 0BE.