World Heritage Sites
The question
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what steps her Department is taking to help protect UNESCO World Heritage Sites in the UK from potential environmental threats.
Answered by Ian Murray
DCMS provides support and advice to all World Heritage Sites across the UK and Overseas Territories that are grappling with environmental threats in our capacity as State Party of the World Heritage Convention.
DCMS works closely with environmental agencies across the UK, including the Joint Nature Conservation Committee, Natural England, NatureScot, Natural Resources Wales and the Northern Ireland Environment Agency, as well as Historic England as our expert advisers on World Heritage. We also consult with individual site managers and local authorities to monitor potential and known threats to our sites and to consider which issues require notification to, and assistance from, UNESCO.
In addition, DCMS funded the project ‘Climate Change & UNESCO Heritage’ which ran from February 2024 - October 2025 and was delivered by the UK National Commission for UNESCO. This project developed open-source tools that support UNESCO heritage sites to address climate challenges.
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