Policy

The Welsh government has accepted the majority of recommendations from a report into the role of its conservation service Cadw but has repeatedly warned that some have “financial implications” that would be “challenging to deliver in the current financial climate”.

In the government’s official response, Cabinet Secretary Lesley Griffiths welcomed the recommendations as “helpful and supportive” in intention and pledged to begin work to implement those that could be taken forward short term, “taking account of the difficult budgetary environment, which is unlikely to improve in the near future”.

Commissioned in December 2022, the review was set up to examine the success of a 2017 decision for Cadw to remain as an internal agency in the Welsh government, while benefiting from increased operational and commercial freedoms.

Led by Roger Lewis and published last year, the report made 29 recommendations grouped into six themes, including clarifying the role of the Cadw board and modifying how Welsh government processes and procedures apply to Cadw, particularly regarding HR.

The report called for changes in senior roles, including the reinstatement of an Additional Accounting Officer - suspended early in the pandemic - to be held by the Head of Cadw, whose title would change to Chief Executive Officer.

Griffiths supported the recommendation and the report's call for a specific budget to be set up in addition to Cadw’s existing funding to advance the proposals, including the hiring of more staff, but added that the plan needed to be “fully costed and affordable” given the “challenging financial context we are currently operating in”.

The recommendations also call for a closer relationship between the board and government, including holding twice yearly meetings with the Deputy Minister for Arts, Sport and Tourism and redefining the board’s role as “more strategic” and “advisory”, which Grithiss accepted in “in principle”.

Issues surrounding the recruitment, promotion and retention of Cadw staff and the ability to appoint emergency cover were also highlighted, with the report noting that many employees are “hands-on, technical craftspeople who have very little in common with the wider civil-service ways of working”.

Griffiths recognised that civil service processes and procedures “can be seen as a barrier” to working in “an efficient and timely manner” and may “appear to restrict the flexible and agile way in which Cadw needs to operate”.

However, she added that senior government officials would need to consider these recommendations further as Cadw must “act responsibly” and “be able to demonstrate value for public money”. 

“It is important the civil service principles around equality, fair and open processes are retained, underpinned by Welsh government values of creativity, fairness, partnership and professionalism,” she said.

Responding to the suggestion to establish a Welsh school of heritage and conservation skills, Griffiths said she could “see the merit” but that, “given current financial constraints,” it was “unlikely to be achievable in the short term without significant external partnership funding.” 

Elsewhere, the Culture Minister said she was “not convinced” that a separate cultural tourism strategy is currently necessary beyond the Culture Strategy for Wales that the government is currently consulting on or that Cadw should be allowed greater freedoms and flexibility in “all aspects of the press, PR, marketing and website activities of Cadw”.

Speaking about a recommendation that Cadw should embrace the Welsh government’s Economic Action Plan, in part by selling Welsh products in its shops and promoting Welsh companies to run the cafes at sites, Griffiths cautioned she was “mindful this has to be undertaken in the context of procurement rules and obtaining best value for public money”.

She added there could be merit in investigating the creation of a standalone, arm's-length charity that could benefit Cadw by applying for grants and receiving bequests and confirmed that an audit and review of access to Cadw sites for disabled people would be conducted.

Scotland's First Minister John Swinney has been warned not to leave decisions over allocating culture funding until December, as planned, because of the knock-on effect this will have on the nation's arts funding body, Creative Scotland.

Creative Scotland is due to determine which organisations it will invest in for its next three-year funding cycle in October. But Holyrood has said it will not issue cultural budgets until December. 

Last year Holyrood committed an additional £100 million in new funding for the cultural sector, which Swinney repledged again last week, however no details on how it will be distributed have been released.  

Speaking to The Scotsman, arts leaders describe the funding environment as “extremely precarious,” leading to potentially “devastating” decisions due in October unless the additional funding is “brought forward at both the levels and pace that are needed”.

The Scottish government will not support calls for a public inquiry into two fires that caused extensive damage to Glasgow School of Art (GSA) because the required resources would be “extensive” and “difficult to justify”.

The Grade A-listed Charles Rennie Mackintosh building was extensively damaged in a blaze on 23 May 2014. Following a £35m restoration project that was close to completion, the school suffered a second, even more destructive fire four years later on 18 June 2018. 

A report by fire investigators in 2022 said the cause of the second fire was undetermined. The Scottish parliament’s Culture Committee had recommended a public inquiry with judicial powers to examine the risks posed by fire in historic buildings.

Addressing the committee last week, Culture Secretary Angus Robertson said a review had been considered but the government did not support the recommendation in part because most Grade A-listed buildings - including GSA - are privately owned.

Robertson said neither the Scottish government nor Historic Environment Scotland had the "necessary frameworks or regulations currently in place to implement such a comprehensive review".

In a letter to MSPs, Robertson said that the "resources required, not just financially but in terms of expertise and personnel, would be extensive".

"Given the current financial landscape, it is difficult to identify a way that this could be funded, or justified, given the protections already given to historic buildings in fire safety and construction legislation, and the progress already made since the 2018 fire."