HES Annual Report for 2025-26 published

The report covers the first year of HES’s Corporate Plan 2025 - 2028, Heritage for All, and details progress across its five priorities: Scotland’s heritage, skills and learning, people and places, climate action, and the organisation.

During 2025-26, HES:

• welcomed 4.8 million visitors to staffed sites

• generated £79.1 million in commercial income

• invested £41.3 million in the conservation and maintenance of the properties, collections and archives in its care

• contributed £1.052 billion to Scotland’s tourism GDP

• engaged 118,000 people through learning programmes

• invested £10.8 million through its grants programme

• reduced carbon emissions to 32% below its 2018-19 baseline

The Annual Report also reflects on a challenging year for the organisation, including scrutiny of its leadership, governance and organisational culture. It sets out work underway to respond to the Organisational and Cultural Review, published in June 2026, and to strengthen governance, accountability and organisational culture.

The Auditor General’s Section 22 report on the 2025-26 audit, published alongside HES’s Annual Report, recognises that action has been taken to investigate and begin to address previously reported weaknesses in financial management and governance. It also makes clear that further work is required to fully implement and embed improvements, highlighting the importance of stable leadership and delivering the organisation’s transformation programme at pace.

The auditor issued unqualified opinions on HES’s 2025-26 Annual Report and Financial Statements. Accounts.

Ronnie Hinds, Interim Chair of Historic Environment Scotland, said:

“This report reflects a year of important achievements alongside significant organisational challenges. Those achievements reflect the expertise and commitment of our staff, but they do not diminish the concerns about governance and leadership. Our public responsibilities must be matched by the highest standards of accountability and conduct.

“The Auditor General recognises that progress has been made, but some changes still need to be fully implemented and shown to be operating consistently. The Board has accepted all the recommendations of our independent organisational and cultural review and agreed a plan for their implementation. We are committed to delivering that plan at pace, with the resources required, clear management accountability and effective Board oversight. If we do that, HES will be well placed to fulfil its role as a leading organisation in Scotland’s culture and heritage sector.

“Public confidence must be earned through improvements that stand up to scrutiny. The test is whether those changes become part of how HES operates every day, and whether our staff and the public can see the difference. Strengthening the organisation matters because the work we do to protect and promote Scotland’s heritage matters.”

The report shows that HES remained financially stable during 2025-26, with income increasing by 5% as commercial activity grew. Total income was £151.6 million, compared with £144.6 million in 2024-2025, and spending remained within Scottish Government budget limits.

Across its 2025-2026 Operating Plan, HES fully achieved 18 of 30 actions, with a further nine partially achieved and three not achieved by the end of the financial year. The report sets out performance against each action as well as future priorities, including organisational effectiveness, financial sustainability, the long-term management of properties in care, workforce innovation, and data and digital transformation.

HES Annual Report 2025-26

We're the lead body for Scotland’s historic environment, a charity dedicated to the advancement of heritage, culture, education and environmental protection. We are at the forefront of researching and understanding the historic environment and addressing the impacts of climate change on its future. Across Scotland, we investigate and record architectural and archaeological sites and landscapes and care for more than 300 properties of national importance. HES is also working with sector partners to deliver Scotland's strategy for the historic environment, Our Past, Our Future.

Historic Scotland, trove.scot, The National Collection of Aerial Photography (NCAP), The Engine Shed, Stirling Castle, Edinburgh Castle and Historic Scotland shop are sub-brands of HES.

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