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1. Introduction

1.1 Historic Environment Scotland (HES) is the lead public body for Scotland’s historic environment and took up its full powers on 1 October 2015. Legally constituted by the Historic Environment Scotland Act 2014, HES has responsibility for the functions and property, rights, liabilities and obligations of its two predecessor bodies, Historic Scotland and The Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland (RCAHMS). HES is also a registered Scottish Charity (SC045925).

1.3 The Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 (the Act) requires Scottish public authorities to produce and maintain a publication scheme. Authorities are under a legal obligation to:

  • publish the classes of information that they make routinely available

  • tell the public how to access the information and what it might cost

1.4 We have adopted the Scottish Information Commissioners Model Publication Scheme 2018. You can see this scheme on our website at Publication Scheme or by contacting us at the address below.

1.5 The purpose of this Guide to Information is to:

  • allow the public to see what information is available (and what is not available)in relation to each class

  • state what charges may be applied

  •  explain how to find the information easily

  • provide contact details for enquiries and to get help with accessing the information

  • explain how to request information we hold that has not been published

2. Availability and formats

2.1 The information we publish through the model scheme is, wherever possible, available on our website. We offer alternative arrangements for people who do not want to, or cannot, access the information online or by inspection at our premises. For example, we can usually arrange to send information to you in paper copy (although there may be a charge for this).

3. Exempt information

3.1 We will publish the information we hold that falls within the classes of information below. If a document contains information that is exempt under Scotland’s freedom of information laws (for example sensitive personal or commercial information), we will remove or redact the information before publication and explain why.

3.2 Sometimes people make FOI and EIR requests for access to information in our collections. These requests are nearly always exempt under section 25 of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act or regulation 6(1)(b) of the Environmental Information (Scotland) Regulations, because this information is already in the public domain. If your request is for information from our collections rather than for information about HES as an organisation, please consult the resources section on our websites (listed under Class 2).

4. Copyright

4.1 Because of our role as a national collection and our role in managing properties and their associated collections on behalf of Scottish Ministers, it is important to note that copyright applies to distinct kinds of information in a different ways

  •  our own corporate information – that is, information that we produce about our business or in the course of our business

  • material in our physical and digital archive (e.g. books, manuscripts, photographs, drawings)

4.2 Where we hold the copyright you can copy or reproduce HES corporate information - reports, statistics, policies and procedures, corporate correspondence etc - provided that:

  •  it is copied or reproduced accurately

  • it is not used in a misleading context, and

  •  the source of the material is identified

4.3 Authorisation to re-use copyright material not owned by HES should be sought from the copyright holders concerned. Copyright restrictions are likely to apply to material in our archives.

5. Charges

5.1 This section explains when we may make a charge for our publications and how any charge will be calculated.

5.2 You do not have to pay for:

  • any information downloaded from our website

  • a single copy of any corporate document

  • information sent in electronic format as an email attachment

  • copies of any corporate publications which are already printed and available for free

5.3 You may have to pay for:

  • printing or photocopying costs of 10p per page (unless your request is for fewer than 50 pages or if it is a single document)

  • information provided on CD-ROM (which will be charged at 50p per disc)

  • postage or other delivery (Royal Mail First Class)

5.4 You will have to pay for:

  • any commercial publications falling under Class 8 of this scheme. These items are offered for sale through retail outlets and their price reflects a market value which may include the cost of production

  • reprographic costs for items from our national collections

5.5 We will always tell you what the cost is before providing the information to you.

6. Contact us

6.1 Requests for information or guidance and assistance with any aspect of our information or our Publication Scheme should be directed to:

Freedom of Information

Historic Environment Scotland

Longmore House

Salisbury Place

Edinburgh

EH9 1SH

Tel: +44 (0)131 668 8600

E-mail: foi@hes.scot

6.2 We will also advise you how to ask for information that we do not publish or how to complain if you are dissatisfied with any aspect of this publication scheme.

6.3 If we are unable to resolve any complaint, you can complain to the Scottish Information Commissioner whose contact details are:

Daren Fitzhenry

Scottish Information Commissioner

Kinburn Castle

Doubledykes Road

St Andrews

Fife

KY16 9DS

Tel: +44 (0)1334 464 610

E-mail: enquiries@itspublicknowledge.info

6.4 This version of the Publication Scheme was last updated in March 2019.

The classes of information that we publish

We publish information that we hold within the following classes.

Where information has been updated or superseded, only the current version will be available. If you would like to see previous versions, you are welcome to make a request to us for that information.

CLASS 1: About Historic Environment Scotland

Class description: Information about HES, who we are, where to find us, how to contact us, how we are managed and our external relations.

The information we publish under this class:

Key corporate documents

Social networking

CLASS 2: How We Deliver Functions & Services

Class description: Information about our work, our strategy and policies for delivering functions and services and information for our service users.

Information about our work

Resources

CLASS 3: How HES Takes Decisions & What has been Decided

Class description: Information about the decisions we take, how we make decisions and how we involve

others.

CLASS 4: What HES spends and how it spends it

Class description: Information about our strategy for, and management of, financial resources.

CLASS 5: How HES manages Human, Physical and Information Resources

Class description: Information about how we manage the Human, Physical and Information Resources of HES.

CLASS 6: How HES procures goods and services from external sources

Class description: Information about how we procure works, goods and services, and our contracts with

external providers.

CLASS 7: How HES is performing

Class description: Information about how we perform and how well we deliver our functions & services

CLASS 8: Our commercial products

Class description: Information packaged and made available for sale on a commercial basis and sold at market value through a retail outlet.

CLASS 9: Open data

Class description: Open data made available by the authority as described by the Scottish Government’s Open Data Resource Pack19 and available under an open licence. All of the below are available on our Heritage Portal except Canmore Areas.

  • Listed Buildings in Scotland GIS

  • Scheduled Monuments in Scotland GIS

  • Inventory of Gardens and Designed Landscapes in Scotland GIS dataset

  • Inventory of Historic Battlefields in Scotland GIS dataset

  • Historic Marine Protected Areas (HMPAs) in Scotland GIS polygon dataset

  • Conservation Areas in Scotland GIS dataset

  • Cultural World Heritage Sites in Scotland GIS dataset

  • Properties in Care in Scotland GIS dataset

  • Scotland's Historic Landuse Assessment (HLA) GIS Dataset 

  • Canmore Areas