A new open public consultation has been launched on the future of the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland (RCAHMS) and the planned merger with Historic Scotland (HS), with a closing date of 23 November and the survey linked at: LINK
The Scottish Government writes:
In November 2011, the Cabinet Secretary for Culture and External Affairs commissioned an options appraisal on the future of the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland (RCAHMS). This options appraisal gathered evidence from a number of sources, including from interested stakeholders. Having considered the options appraisal, the Cabinet Secretary believes that a merger between RCAHMS and Historic Scotland to create a new organisation provides the best means of securing RCAHMS’ functions by placing them on a statutory basis that they will be sustained and nurtured for the future.
The Cabinet Secretary has asked RCAHMS and Historic Scotland to work together on the development of the business case for merger. ODS Consulting has been appointed to carry out stakeholder consultation to inform this business case. This will have three main elements:
· this on-line survey to get a breadth of views from stakeholders;
· three consultation events in late November and early December 2012 to get a depth of views; and
· telephone interviews with key organisations, including similar bodies in England and Wales.
This stakeholder consultation will build on the previous consultation (which was focused on the future of RCAHMS), but broaden this to the creation of a new organisation from Historic Scotland and RCAHMS. A summary of the previous consultation was included as Annexes 3 and 4 of the Strategic Options Appraisal on the Future of RCAHMS (available on the Scottish Government website).
The previous stakeholder consultation identified a number of concerns from respondents on whether a merger was desirable, as well as some support. A decision has now been taken on the preferred option. This survey allows respondents to consider the potential offered by the creation of a new organisation through merger and ways that previously expressed concerns can best be mitigated.
Online survey
The survey is designed for individuals and organisations currently using the resources and functions of RCAHMS and Historic Scotland and allows us to gather a breadth of views and identify key issues in follow-up discussion workshops.
The survey is being circulated widely through the electronic mailing lists of Historic Scotland, RCAHMS and the Built Environment Forum Scotland (BEFS). If you know anyone who might be interested, but has not received the survey, please feel free to forward this email to them. We are looking for the widest possible response rate.
The survey is in two parts. The first part is about your current experience with RCAHMS and Historic Scotland and should take a few minutes to complete. The second part is more detailed and seeks views on the merger process and the future activities of the new organisation. This section may require a greater depth of interest and involvement and is likely to take up to 15 minutes. You can decide whether you wish to answer only the initial questions or the entire survey. In either case, we very much welcome your contribution which will inform the development of the business case.
We do not ask for your name, ensuring that responses will be confidential and if you are responding on behalf of an organisation, we will not attribute any comments to your organisation. Once you have completed the survey, click ‘done’, and it will be submitted. It is helpful if you can return the survey as soon as possible.
The final date for submitting responses is Friday 23 November 2012.
We look forward to your contributions to this important issue. The report on this consultation will be published early in 2013 and will be available on the websites of Historic Scotland and RCAHMS.
See the survey at: LINK
Track the background to the merger with a search on the IHBC’s NewsBlog archive, starting with: LINK
