Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, how many finds have been reported as Treasure under the Treasure Act 1996 in Wiltshire in each of the last 20 years; and if she will make a statement.
The overwhelming majority of finds in England and Wales are reported directly to Finds Liaison Officers, though in a small number of cases they are reported directly to Coroners. The Coroner will normally direct the finder to the Finds Liaison Officer. In Northern Ireland, where the Portable Antiquities Scheme does not apply, finds are reported directly to the Coroner. Only individual Coroner’s officers will hold information on cases directly reported to them.
The Treasure Act, which defines what finds are treasure came into force in 1997, and since then the following finds have been reported as treasure in Wiltshire:
1997 – 6,1998 – 9,1999 – 10, 2000 – 4, 2001 – 7, 2002 – 9, 2003 – 8 (PAS first started in Wiltshire), 2004 – 11, 2005 – 18, 2006 – 18, 2007 – 25, 2008 – 26, 2009 – 20, 2010 – 36, 2011 – 41, 2012 – 35, 2013 – 30, 2014 – 30, 2015 – 35 (source Treasure Annual Report 2015) , 2016 – 46 (source Portable Antiquities Scheme Annual Report 2016)
Since the Portable Antiquities Scheme began in Wiltshire in 2003 the following finds have been reported in each year.
2003 - 107, 2004 - 1,234, 2005 - 878, 2006 - 1,533, 2007 - 1,555,
2008 - 896, 2009 - 1,213, 2010 - 1,144, 2011 - 1,601, 2012 - 1,769, 2013 - 2,684, 2014 - 3,392, 2015 - 3,913, 2016 - 4,266, 2017 - 2,695
In the last 12 months the Wiltshire Finds Liaison Officer has had discussions with the following museums and heritage organisations in Wiltshire:
In addition the Wiltshire Finds Liaison Officer has had discussions with two Wiltshire based archaeology projects, the PAStlands Project and the Teffont Archaeological Project.