Introduction
Scotland’s heritage plays a major role in economic regeneration and prosperity, promoting inward investment, business growth and relocation and, in many areas, tourism. For every £1 spent on a LA archaeology service, £15 is generated for the local economy, alongside UK wide annual savings of an estimated £1.3 billion to the construction industry through reduced delay costs (Landward Report, 2019). In 2019 the historic environment generated £4.4 billion for Scotland’s economy and supported 68,000 full-time equivalent jobs, mainly in the heritage, tourism and construction sectors (HES, Inquiry into Budget 2023-24 to Scottish Parliament). From the above economic benefits, it is clear our local historic assets, and their management, are important to all local authorities across Scotland.
The historic environment is a shared and irreplaceable resource. Preservation in-situ of archaeological sites is the preferred method under national and local policies, but where this is not possible then appropriate mitigation must be undertaken to preserve the site via record, and to make the results publicly available.
Scheduled Monuments are managed by Historic Environment Scotland and comprise around 3% of known archaeological sites across the country. The remainder are undesignated, and decisions arising from planning and development fall under the remit of Local Authorities. To enable impacts to be managed appropriately, Local Authorities require advice and expertise through the curation of a professional archaeology service (with currently 29 out of 32 Scottish Local Authorities members of The Association of Local Government Archaeological Officers (ALGAO) Scotland). The function of ALGAO is to promote the role of local authority archaeologists, ensure their services are included within relevant policy, to maintain standards, and improve the ongoing management of the historic environment.