Secondary Legislation

During the consolidation process, well-established secondary legislation was incorporated into the Historic Environment (Wales) Act 2023 (‘the 2023 Act’) so as much of the pertinent law on a topic as possible could be found in the same place. However, a suite of regulations was also prepared to support the 2023 Act in order to restate secondary legislation that might require frequent amendment in response to changing circumstances or requirements. 

Employing the same approach taken with the 2023 Act, the new regulations updated and restated existing regulations, orders and directions, but they have not changed the effect of the law. The new regulations replaced all of the earlier subordinate legislation identified in the table on 4 November 2024.

These five sets of regulations, like the 2023 Act, state that they are part of a code of law relating to the historic environment for Wales. This declaration of status is intended to help persons interested in the law on a particular topic — the historic environment in this instance — find and classify it more easily.

A further set of regulations:

The Historic Environment (Wales) Act 2023 (Consequential Provision) (Secondary Legislation) Regulations 2024

made consequential amendments to a wide range of secondary legislation to reflect the enactment of the 2023 Act. Amongst these were two existing historic environment regulations that only required amendment, rather than restatement, to reflect the appearance of the 2023 Act:

• The Scheduled Monuments (Review of Scheduling Decisions) (Wales) Regulations 2017
• The Listed Buildings (Review of Listing Decisions) (Wales) Regulations 2017

Amongst the amendments made to both of these regulations was the insertion of the declaration that they form part of the historic environment code. The same historic environment code declaration has also been inserted in the following regulations because of their importance in procedural matters touching the historic environment:

• The Planning (National Security Directions and Appointed Representatives) (Wales) Regulations 2006
• The Town and Country Planning (Determination of Appeals by Appointed Persons) (Prescribed Classes) (Wales) Regulations 2015
• The Town and Country Planning (Enforcement Notices and Appeals) (Wales) Regulations 2017
• The Town and Country Planning (Referred Applications and Appeals Procedure) (Wales) Regulations 2017

These amendments take effect from 4 November 2024.