A review by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) of the UK’s World Heritage Site Tentative List is now underway. Heritage Minister Nigel Huddleston has launched a call for the UK’s next nominations for UNESCO World Heritage Status.
Open to sites in the UK, Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies, nominations are reviewed every ten years and is a chance for sites to receive international recognition for the important role they have played in the world’s history.
The successful sites could join the UK’s 33 other UNESCO World Heritage Sites. Last year the Slate Landscape of Northwest Wales was the most recent UK location to receive UNESCO status. 2021 also saw the City of Bath – originally named a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1987 – awarded a special dual designation as the Great Spa Towns of Europe, along with 11 others including Baden-Baden in Germany and Vichy in France.
Heritage Minister Nigel Huddleston said:
“UNESCO World Heritage Status has a transformative impact on places bestowed with this honour. As well as international acclaim, UNESCO status boosts tourism and creates employment and economic growth opportunities.
The UK and Overseas Territories have many potential contenders and I can’t wait to see what fantastic sites and stories we uncover in our search.“
The Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) will form an independent panel of heritage experts to review nominations. Nominations will be assessed against rigorous criteria and only locations with the potential to be inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List will be put forward to formal nomination.
DCMS is responsible for meeting the requirements of the World Heritage Convention within the UK. This includes maintaining and reviewing the Tentative List of sites, formally nominating new sites, and ensuring existing sites are conserved and protected.
The new Tentative List will be published by DCMS later this year.
The UK’s next nominations, drawn from the current Tentative List will be examined by the World Heritage Committee in 2024. They are the Scottish Flow Country and Gracehill in Northern Ireland. Gracehill – a Moravian Church settlement dating from 1759 – will be nominated as part of a joint bid led by the US and Germany to add a number of Moravian Church settlements to the existing UNESCO World Heritage Site in Denmark.
DCMS are inviting applications for a new Tentative List of natural, cultural and mixed sites for potential nomination for inscription on the UNESCO World Heritage List.
The closing date for submitting the expression of interest form is Friday 6 May 2022.
The closing date for submitting the application form is Friday 15 July 2022.
Please click here for details of applying.