There are over 4,000 scheduled monuments in Wales. The principal pieces of primary and subordinate legislation that currently govern their protection and management are:
The Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Areas Act 1979This Act is the basic legislation that provides for:
The Historic Environment (Wales) Act 2016 made a number of important amendments to the 1979 Act.
Consultation, interim protection and review of decisions to designate historic assets
Owners and others are now formally consulted when a monument is being considered for scheduling or descheduling. Interim protection safeguards a monument from damage or destruction during the consultation period. An owner or occupier is able to request a review of a designation decision.
Extension of the definition of a scheduled monument
The Welsh Ministers can recognise and protect any nationally important sites that provide evidence of past human activity.
Amendments to the criminal offences and defences for damage to scheduled monuments
The Act makes it easier to bring cases of unlawful damage or destruction of scheduled monuments to prosecution by limiting the defence of ignorance of a monument’s status or location. The accused will have to be able to show that all reasonable steps had been taken to find out if a scheduled monument would be harmed or destroyed by their actions.
Introduction of enforcement and temporary stop notices for scheduled monuments
Temporary stop notices give the Welsh Ministers powers to put an immediate halt to unauthorised works or other damage to scheduled monuments. They can use complementary enforcement notices to order repairs to monuments or the fulfilment of scheduled monument consent conditions without going to court.
Amendments to the scheduled monument consent process
A simplified scheduled monument consent process uses modern communications for the authorisation of minor works.
Powers of entry for the archaeological investigation of ancient monuments in danger of damage or destruction
If an ancient monument is at immediate risk of damage or destruction, the Welsh Ministers can authorise archaeological excavations without the owner’s consent.
Introduction of heritage partnership agreements
Heritage partnership agreements allow owners, consenting authorities and other interested parties to create long-term management plans for historic assets. The plans cover agreed programmes of works and can incorporate scheduled monument and/or listed building consents.
Further information on the scheduled monument provisions of the Historic Environment (Wales) Act 2016 can be found in the following fact sheets.