Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment she has made with the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government of the adequacy of current statutory protections for scheduled monuments.

Scheduled Monuments are protected under the terms of the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Areas Act 1979, for which the Department for Culture, Media and Sport is responsible.

DCMS officials liaise closely with their counterparts in the Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government to ensure that relevant aspects of national planning policy recognise the national importance of Scheduled Monuments.

DCMS keeps under review as part of its general policy function whether its policies and procedures are effective. No explicit assessment of the adequacy of statutory protections for Scheduled Monuments has been undertaken.