Commentary on Sections Part 2 — Monuments of special historic interest Chapter 2 — Schedule of monuments of national importance Section 5 — Consultation before adding or removing monument to or from the scheduleSection 6 — Interim protection pending decision on certain amendments relating to the schedule
35.Section 5 puts in place a formal structure for consultation on the Welsh Ministers’ proposals to amend the schedule. It provides that the Welsh Ministers must serve a notice of a proposed amendment on specified recipients and allow those persons at least 28 days to make written representations.
36.The service of a notice of a proposal to amend the schedule by adding a monument or adding anything as part of a monument will trigger interim protection under section 6. In that case, section 5(4)(b) requires the notice to explain the effect of interim protection and specify the date on which interim protection takes effect.
37.From that time, and until interim protection ends in accordance with section 7, this Part of the Act will have effect as if a monument being considered for addition to the schedule were already scheduled or a proposed amendment were already made.
38.Where a monument is subject to interim protection it is an offence to undertake works to it without consent (section 30) or to damage the monument (section 58). This means, for example, that a person carrying out demolition works without consent in relation to a monument under interim protection would commit an offence, unless a relevant defence was available to the person. Interim protection is designed to afford protection to a monument during the consultation period. This may be protection, for instance, from an owner who could otherwise have an incentive to deliberately damage or destroy a historic asset during the consultation period in an effort to undermine the protection that scheduling would otherwise have provided.
39.Subsection (4) of section 6 requires the Welsh Ministers to publish a list of monuments subject to interim protection and provide a copy of the notice served under section 5(2) to any person who requests one. At the time of writing these notes, the list is included on the “Statutory scheduled monument consultation notices” page in the “Scheduled monuments” section of the Cadw website and is also represented as a distinct category on Cof Cymru.