Examination of Witnesses (Questions 100-102)
RT HON
MARGARET HODGE
MP AND DR
SIMON THURLEY
2 JULY 2008
Q100 Chairman: I can tell you that
when we spoke to the Ministry of Defence they seemed relatively
happy, but I do know there are a number of people who are very
worried about this Bill. I hope you can provide that reassurance
because if the Bill is to achieve the universal support, which
I am sure you wish to see, I think it is important that is available
Margaret Hodge: It is just I do
not want to give you a wrong answer.
Chairman: We would much rather have a
considered and right answer.
Q101 Philip Davies: I want to pin
you down a bit more on this "enhanced protection" for
the list for UNESCO. I take on board the point you have made about
the dilemma between making it too wide and having it too narrow,
but there seems to be two specific categories which I want to
flag up to you in terms of what should be included for "enhanced
protection". There are many of them which everybody agrees
about, such as world heritage sites obviously, but the two in
particular are the historic urban centres which are not world
heritage sites, for example Oxford and York, and also the Grade
II* listed buildings which it seems you are not currently minded
to include on the list but where other people think they are so
important that they should be included. I wonder where your thoughts
are at the moment on those two specific categories.
Margaret Hodge: We have not come
to a view on that and the reason we have not come to a view is
we have not got the rules from UNESCO. When those are publicly
available, we will have to consider the issues. As I have said
to you, there are pros and cons in making that list larger or
smaller. Again, I do not think this is going to be a process we
will want to go through in a hidden way, we would want to be as
open as we can through it. Let us wait for the rules from UNESCO
and then let us try and make a judgment on where it is in the
interest of protecting our heritage to have them in that "enhanced"
category rather than in the "general protection" category.
Q102 Philip Davies: Simon, can I
press you as to what your view is on these two categories in particular?
Dr Thurley: I understand that
DCMS has listed a number of areas that it feels, in a preliminary
sense in absence of the guidance from UNESCO, should be on the
list and they are world heritage sites, designated museums, copyright
libraries and national archives. It does currently, as you state,
not include Grade II* listed buildings, it just includes Grade
I, which are about 9,000 buildings. I think English Heritage's
view would probably be that Grade II* should be included also
but that would include another 20,000 buildings. Our view would
also be that certain collections which are not currently nationally
designated, private collections like the Royal Collection, the
Chatsworth Collection or Holkham are also significant collections,
but I think the Minister is right, it is quite difficult at the
moment in the absence of really clear guidance to know whether
that is a strongly held position I have just articulated or whether
it is a preference and we just have to wait.
Chairman: I think we have come to the
end of our questions. Thank you very much.
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