How We Determine Whether a Historic Building or Site Should be Recommended for Protection
We have produced a series of selection guides to help us to recommend whether a historic building or site should be added to the statutory List, that forms part of the National Heritage List for England (NHLE).
These expand upon the national policy produced by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS), set out below in Other Guidance.
When it comes to listing a building, scheduling a monument or protecting a wreck site, the final decision is taken by the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport. They also decide whether a building, a monument or a wreck can be removed from the List or whether a List entry can be amended.
When it comes to registering a park, garden or battlefield the decision is taken by Historic England. We also decide whether a park, garden or battlefield can be removed from the List or whether a List entry can be amended.
Our selection guides
Our selection guides help to explain what we are looking for when we assess applications for inclusion on the List.
There are currently 44 selection guides covering the full range of building types, archaeological sites, designed landscapes, battlefields, and wrecks:
- Twenty relate to different building types
- Eighteen cover archaeological sites
- Four focus on designed landscapes
- One deals with battlefields
- One handles ships and boats
Each of the selection guides gives a broad overview before moving on to set out subject-specific selection principles.
Our guidance on special historic interest in listing sets out how we assess these criteria and includes examples that celebrate special historic interest on the List.
Introductions to heritage assets
These short guides build on the information provided in the selection guides and provide a more thorough introduction to a range of specific types of archaeological sites, buildings, wrecks, and designed landscapes, about which little else may be written.
The Introductions to Heritage Assets cover:
- archaeological topics
- poorly understood or little-studied building types
- ships and boats from prehistory to 1950
- designed landscapes
Other guidance
Buildings, archaeological sites, designed landscapes, battlefields, and maritime wreck sites all operate under separate pieces of legislation:
- Listing Buildings - Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990
- Scheduling Archaeological Sites - Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Area Act 1979
- Protecting Wreck Sites - Protection of Wrecks Act 1973, the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Areas Act 1979, and the Protection of Military Remains Act 1986
- Registering of Parks and Gardens and Battlefields - The Historic Buildings and Ancient Monuments Act 1953
The DCMS has produced national policy on the Principles of Selection for Listing Buildings which sets out the general principles applied when deciding whether a building is of special architectural or historic interest.
The DCMS has also written a Scheduled Monuments Policy Statement which provides more detail on identifying, protecting, conserving and investigating nationally important archaeological sites under the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Areas Act 1979.
