UNESCO: Westminster World Heritage Site

Lord Cormack Excerpts

Thursday 26th March 2015 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Jolly]

Regrettably, I do not have the ear of Mr Pickles, so I am unable to do so.

[Lord Cormack (Con)]

My Lords, it is very important that my noble friend, even at this late stage in the Parliament, does obtain the ear of Mr Pickles, because what he has done has placed in jeopardy the whole future of Westminster as a world heritage site. Do we really want to end this Parliament on that note?

[Baroness Jolly]

I take the noble Lord’s point. However, UNESCO has not warned us of a possible delisting of the Palace. It has asked that the state of conservation report for the site be submitted by 1 February. The Government have carefully considered UNESCO’s request not to approve the scheme but concluded that the level of harm to the world heritage site would be substantially less than that suggested by UNESCO.