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

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, whether her Department provides guidance to navigation authorities on attaining World Heritage Status for canal systems.

The Department for Culture, Media and Sport is responsible for nominating sites across the United Kingdom, the Overseas Territories, and the Crown Dependencies to UNESCO for World Heritage Status. The Department last updated the Tentative List of prospective World Heritage nominations in 2022/23.

Following the conclusion of this exercise, guidance was published on GOV.UK, which sets out the process for sites seeking World Heritage Status and advises those interested to contact the heritage agency responsible for heritage in their part of the UK (or the relevant Government authority if overseas) in the first instance.