FFHS-NEWS Draft Heritage Protection Bill

[News from the Federation of Family History Societies]

Draft Heritage Protection Bill

Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee Report published 30 July 2008

The draft Bill is concerned primarily with the protection of buildings and
the extension of this protection to include sites and scatterings of
archaeological finds.  However, there is one particular part which is of
interest to family historians (see below).  The report from the Select
Committee runs to 185 pages.  It can be accessed at
<www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200708/cmselect/cmcumeds/821/821.pdf>

The report incorporates a memorandum from the Association of Chief
Archivists in Local Government (ACALG) and the FFHS welcomes the views
expressed there concerning the need to introduce legislation to protect
archives.  To quote from the memorandum, ACALG says "We would also take this
opportunity to remind the Committee about the rather serious difference
between the level of protection afforded to buildings and the heritage
environment and the lack of protection afforded to "portable heritage" and
most specifically archive collections. These can be as enmeshed with the
identity and history of a community as any building or landscape, but have
little if any protection in most cases other than the refusal of an export
licence if they are perceived as being over a certain monetary value. At
present the archive room of an historic building can have protection, but
the contents of the room do not even though they relate to the fields the
estate and house are on or the people who lived and worked there."

It is disturbing to note that the Select Committee states that "The cost of
implementing the Bill, outlined in the accompanying Impact Assessment, is
considered by much of the heritage sector to be a gross underestimate."
This is not unusual and Government ought to take steps to get its house in
order.

Roger Lewry
FFHS Legislation Monitoring Officer
Email: legislation at ffhs.org.uk