Section 230: Historic environment records, Levelling-up and Regeneration Act 2023

A relevant authority must maintain an historic environment record for its area.

An "historic environment record" is a system for storing and making available to the public information about—

any of the following in the area—

a listed building within the meaning given by section 1(5) of the Listed Buildings Act;

a conservation area within the meaning given by section 91(1) of that Act;

a scheduled monument within the meaning given by section 1(11) of the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Areas Act 1979;

a garden or other area of land included in a register maintained by the Historic Buildings and Monuments Commission for England under section 8C of the Historic Buildings and Ancient Monuments Act 1953;

a site designated as a restricted area under section 1 of the Protection of Wrecks Act 1973;

a World Heritage Site (that is to say, a property appearing on the World Heritage List kept under Article 11(2) of the UNESCO Convention Concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage adopted at Paris on 16 November 1972);

anything of a description specified in regulations under subsection (3),

other sites in the area which the authority considers to be of historic, architectural, archaeological or artistic interest,

objects found in the area in the course of archaeological investigations which the authority considers to be of such interest, and

historical, architectural, archaeological or scientific investigations or studies relating to—

anything within paragraphs (a) to (c), or

the development, preservation or present character of any part of the area.

The Secretary of State may, by regulations, specify for the purposes of subsection (2)(a)(vii) a description of object, structure or site that—

is designated, registered or similarly recognised under an enactment, and

appears to the Secretary of State to be so wholly or partly because of historic, architectural, archaeological or artistic importance.

Subsection (1) requires information to be included in an historic environment record only so far as the relevant authority—

has the information, and

considers it suitable for inclusion in the record.

A relevant authority must take such steps as it considers reasonable to—

obtain information for inclusion in its historic environment record, and

keep information included in its historic environment record up to date.

The Secretary of State may by regulations make provision—

about how information is to be stored or made available as described in subsection (2);

for and in connection with the charging of fees by relevant authorities in respect of—

the provision of advice or assistance to persons making use, or proposing to make use, of an historic environment record;

the provision of documents copied or derived from an historic environment record.

Regulations under subsection (6)(a) may, in particular, make provision requiring or enabling information to be stored or made available in accordance with such standards or specifications as are published by the Secretary of State from time to time.

The relevant authorities for the purposes of this section are—

each county council in England,

each district council for an area in England for which there is no county council,

each London borough council,

the Common Council of the City of London,

the Council of the Isles of Scilly,

each National Park authority for a National Park in England, and

the Broads Authority.

For the purposes of this section—

the area of the Common Council includes the Inner Temple and the Middle Temple,

an area comprising a National Park for which there is a National Park authority is the area of that authority and no other relevant authority, and

the area comprising the Broads, as defined by section 2(3) of the Norfolk and Suffolk Broads Act 1988, is the area of the Broads Authority and no other relevant authority.

Section 230: Historic environment records

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