Historic Scotland (HS), an executive agency of the Scottish Government charged with safeguarding the nation’s historic environment, is developing its new corporate plan and has launched a wide-ranging consultation to receive feedback from staff and stakeholders, with a closing date for responses of Wednesday 16 November.
The corporate plan sets out Historic Scotland’s vision for the historic environment and its strategic priorities for the next three years and can be viewed on its website. The plan also includes key manifesto commitments from the Scottish Government, and will be vital in supporting the delivery of the government’s priorities.
Ian Walford, Chief Operating Officer at Historic Scotland said:
‘Historic Scotland’s role is to ensure that the historic environment delivers economic, social, cultural and environmental benefits for Scotland. We do this through historic environment legislation, our people and our resources which are distributed widely across Scotland and deliver a broad remit covering tourism, construction and development, and education.
Our business activity generates around £30 million of income in addition to the funding received from the Scottish Government which we invest to support the delivery of sustainable economic growth.
The funding we receive allows us to protect and promote Scotland’s historic environment. We do this through the conservation of 345 nationally significant historic properties and monuments in the care of Scottish Ministers, and by providing advice on the special interest and management of Scotland’s wider historic environment, including listed buildings, scheduled monuments, wreck sites, gardens and designed landscapes and battlefields.
It will also help us, as Scotland’s largest operator of paid-for visitor attractions, to maintain Scotland’s position as a world class tourist destination.”
Historic Scotland will also use its resources to increase its commitment to supporting traditional skills through employing 30 additional apprentices and progress work on establishing the National Conservation Centre. It will also enhance Scotland’s reputation for innovation and excellence by laser scanning five international sites as well as the 5 World Heritage Sites in Scotland and progress key projects such as the Battle of Bannockburn Project.
Like all of our partners and customers we will face challenges but we are confident that we can continue to build on our current performance and set even higher standards over the next 3 years.
We believe that by the end of the spending review period we will be a fitter and more effective organisation. We will be earning by our own efforts a much higher proportion of our funding. We will also be ensuring that a much higher proportion of our resources is channelled to the front line so that we can continue to deliver exceptional service with and through our partners to our customers – to the people of Scotland.’
All responses should be sent to:
denise.mattison@scotland.gsi.gov.uk
Historic Scotland Consultations: LINK
