About the Heritage Office

The Heritage Office of the Velocity Interoperability Network is responsible for the sites, buildings and monuments of historic, architectural or archaeological interest across the Velocity Interoperability Network. It identifies them, decides which should be protected, keeps the Register of Protected Sites, decides applications for consent for works, and records the condition of sites at risk.

The Office was established on 6 September 2026. Before that date each member organisation of the Network kept its own list of buildings and monuments of interest, on its own criteria, and made its own decisions about works to them. The Office replaces those lists with a single Register kept on a common standard, and those decisions with a single procedure that applies at every site.

18

Entries on the Register of Protected Sites at establishment

6

Principal sites of the Network with at least one protected site

14

Staff of the Office, including six inspectors and two archaeologists

26

Site inspections carried out during the transition period

The Office has fourteen staff at establishment: six inspectors, who visit sites, assess proposals and advise on applications for consent; two archaeologists, responsible for scheduled monuments and for the archaeological evaluation of proposals; three register officers, who maintain the Register and the Heritage at Risk Register; and three administrative staff. Inspectors are assigned to sites rather than to subjects, so that each principal site has a named inspector who knows it.

Responsibilities. The Office's work falls into six areas.

The Register of Protected Sites

Keeping the authoritative record of every designated site, building, monument, conservation area and landscape in the Network, with the reasons for each designation and a map of its protected extent.

Designation

Assessing proposals for protection against published criteria, consulting owners and member organisations, and deciding whether a site should be entered on the Register and at what grade.

Consent for works

Deciding applications for works that would affect a protected site, advising owners on how change can be accommodated, and taking enforcement action where works proceed without consent.

Heritage at risk

Recording the condition of protected sites, identifying those at risk from neglect, decay or damage, and agreeing with the responsible organisation the action to be taken.

Survey and recording

Recording buildings and monuments of potential interest across the Network, whether or not they are protected, so that future designations rest on a complete and consistent record.

Advice and statistics

Advising member organisations on the care of the sites in their charge, answering enquiries from owners and citizens, and publishing statistics on the Register and the Office's work each quarter.

Working principles. The Office designates on evidence and against published criteria, so that an owner can understand why a site is protected and a proposer can understand why a proposal was declined. It consults before it decides. It treats protection as a means of managing change rather than preventing it: most applications for consent are expected to be granted, with conditions where they are needed. And it publishes what it does, including the Register in full, the sites it considers at risk and the figures on which it reports.

For the Office's origins and the milestones since its establishment, see History; for the figures on which it reports, see Statistics. General enquiries may be sent to contact@heritage.gov.vin.