Hansard

I am sure that Sandra White welcomed the investment in the statues on the Kelvin walkway. As the member well knows, a substantial investment was announced in cultural terms for the Commonwealth games. It was announced in July not just for Glasgow but for across the country. However, I am sure that he will welcome the announcement that I have already made about historic investment for the statues in Glasgow.

I now return to the issue of climate change and how that can have potentially damaging effects. Rising sea levels and increased storm events endanger historic landscapes, structures, buildings and archaeology in the coastal zone. Some of Scotland’s most special and internationally recognised sites, such as parts of the heart of neolithic Orkney world heritage site, are among those most at risk.

I believe that it is our role as a Government to create the conditions in which our historic environment can best address those issues and continue to flourish in its own right. That is why I commissioned a fundamental review of historic environment policies in 2012. The programme board for the review and the three associated workstreams, which carried out the work, comprised more than 60 individuals representing a wide range of organisations in the historic environment, including the NTS, RCAHMS, the Built Environment Forum Scotland and the Royal Incorporation of Architects in Scotland. That effective collaboration demonstrates the genuine enthusiasm and passion that exists in individuals and organisations across Scotland for our history and heritage.

During the review, it became apparent that Scotland needed its first cohesive, overarching strategy for its historic environment to set out a common vision and provide clear direction for all parts of the sector. In order to address that need, a strategy was developed in close partnership with colleagues from across the historic environment sector, and its content was informed and shaped by the review carried out in 2012.

The document that emerged from that process is Scotland’s first-ever overarching strategy for the historic environment and it belongs not to Government but to the people of Scotland. I take this opportunity to thank all who contributed to the review process and the development of the draft strategy.

The strategy is a high-level document that sets out a vision and a definition, and it is underpinned by three key aims: first, to investigate and record our historic environment and to continue to develop our knowledge, understanding and interpretation of our past and how best to conserve, sustain and present it; secondly, to care for and protect the historic environment in order to both enjoy and benefit from it and to conserve and enhance it for the benefit of future generations; and thirdly, to share and celebrate the richness and significance of the fascinating and inspirational diversity of our heritage. Working collectively across the public, private and third sectors, and maximising the potential of our volunteers to deliver those aims, will deliver huge benefits for our historic environment.

It is important to take a holistic approach to the management of caring for and protecting our historic environment, and to acknowledge the close links between the cultural and natural elements of the environment and our sense of place.

The historic environment has a key role in regeneration; indeed, the recent report on town centres also indicates how we must look at care and protection. On-going maintenance, as we have heard, must ensure that we have stronger and safer communities, maintaining that sense of place. Sustainability will very much be part and parcel of the approach, particularly towards the 500,000 traditionally constructed domestic buildings built before 1919—a matter that we have touched on in the debate.

Sharing and celebrating our historic environment is important, and we have a collective opportunity to identify how best to do that—I take on board the points made in Liz Smith’s amendment and I look forward to hearing more from her in that regard. How we share and celebrate is a matter of active citizenship and the volunteering, which I will come on to later. We must engage with everybody. It is not just a case of engaging with the official experts because they are frequently not the experts; the experts are as much those people who know about, are informed by and live in the local community. Audience engagement is important, too.

Investigating and recording is hugely important to our heritage, archives and records. A great deal of activity has been undertaken or is under way in investigating and recording the historic environment through a range of different bodies. It is not the intention of the strategy to reinvent the wheel; rather, it is to champion the common endeavour and to seek ways, perhaps through the successful model of the research framework for archaeology, to harness and collate information and knowledge to ensure its best use and effectiveness.

The draft strategy was subject to public consultation between 8 May and 31 July. Initial feedback indicates that the majority of respondents, including key organisations such as the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities, support the need for a strategy and its overarching aims. Today’s debate is an opportunity for MSPs to contribute to the development of the strategy.

It is important to stress that the strategy will not impose additional burdens on the sector. It is a framework that will help to ensure that decisions are taken in an informed way and at the right level, and it will enable the sector to prioritise its activities collectively.

The strategy is driving positive change. For example, in line with priorities identified in the draft document, we have established a collaborative group, comprising the Scottish Government, Historic Scotland, COSLA and local authority representatives, which has been tasked to consider how the historic environment can best be managed within the planning and other regulatory systems. Similarly, we have established a heritage tourism group to consider how best to make full use of our heritage assets. We are also in the early stages of setting up a learning and volunteering group to ensure that we capture the value of the historic environment to people’s quality of life—through enhancing volunteering activity, for example.

Those are early steps, but the collaboration and partnership working that lie at the heart of each of the groups bode well for the future of our historic environment and improving the overall resilience of the sector in face of the challenges ahead.

Delivering the strategy will require the commitment and enthusiasm of all in the historic environment, from academics and professionals with specialist knowledge and skills, through all aspects of local and national government, to individuals and communities taking an interest in their local historic environment. For example, local authorities play a key role in supporting our historic environment through the planning system, community development and cultural services, including museums and archives. They will continue to be a key partner in delivering the strategy.

In short, we need to adopt a team Scotland approach, wisely advocated in George Reid’s review of the National Trust for Scotland, which was published in 2010. We cannot work in isolation if we are to achieve the best for our historic environment, and for Scotland, today. As I have said, this is Scotland’s strategy—we need to collectively own and deliver the strategy.

The strategy sets out a framework that will help to deliver positive outcomes for our historic environment. We as a Government need to ensure that we play our part in the delivery of the strategy. That includes ensuring that the historic environment is better factored in to other public policy debates, such as the regeneration of town centres, through to capturing the excellent work of our national collections.

That also includes my proposals to merge Historic Scotland and RCAHMS. Through my role as Cabinet Secretary for Culture and External Affairs, I am very familiar with both organisations’ work and I have long been impressed by the professionalism and expertise that the staff demonstrate. The functions of both organisations are hugely important in helping us to care for, protect and manage our rich historic environment. Indeed, the value that the Scottish Government places on the functions of both organisations underpins our approach to the merger.

The merger is necessary now to ensure that the functions of both Historic Scotland and RCAHMS can be preserved and sustained for the future. The remit for the business case for the merger was to focus on sustainability, and not savings, as a key driver.

I will expect the new body to deliver more effectively as a single organisation, and to play a greater enabling role in supporting other organisations that play a major role in looking after the historic environment. Successful delivery will safeguard the long-term sustainability of the functions, secure the skills and expertise of staff and build the resilience of the sector. As part of this year’s programme for government, we intend to introduce legislation to facilitate the merger in early 2014, and I look forward to debating the detail of that bill with parliamentary colleagues.

Our new strategy sets out a vision for the historic environment that can be shared, owned and delivered across the sector. It provides a framework for the sector to work in partnership to deliver significant and sustainable benefits for our historic environment, and it represents the Government’s ambition for culture and heritage. It points the way forward to a brighter future for our heritage—and for the people of Scotland, whose lives are enriched in so many ways by our unique historic environment.

I move,

That the Parliament welcomes the work carried out by organisations across Scotland’s historic environment sector, including charitable bodies and local government, to develop the first ever Historic Environment Strategy for Scotland; further welcomes views from all members to inform the strategy and ensure that it will deliver the best outcomes for Scotland’s precious and unique historic environment, and recognises the importance of collaborative working in the sector to enable Scotland’s rich heritage to continue to contribute to its economy, society and communities so that future generations can enjoy and benefit from its built heritage.