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An official website of the Velocity Interoperability Network

History of the Heritage Office

The Heritage Office of the Velocity Interoperability Network is a young institution with an old subject. The milestones below record its establishment and will be extended as the Office's procedures come into operation, as the survey proceeds and as the Register grows.

  1. Before September 2026

    Lists kept by member organisations

    Before the Office existed, each member organisation of the Network kept its own list of the buildings and monuments of interest in its charge, on its own criteria, and made its own decisions about works to them. Some lists were careful and long-standing; others were informal or incomplete. No list was published, and no site was protected in a way that applied across the Network.

  2. 10 August to 5 September 2026

    The transition period

    In the four weeks before establishment, member organisations transferred their lists, records and outstanding proposals and requests to the new Office. Thirty-one entries were reviewed and twenty-six sites inspected; proposals and requests for consent continued to be received under interim arrangements at the principal sites.

  3. 6 September 2026

    Heritage Office established

    The Heritage Office of the Velocity Interoperability Network was formally established, with responsibility for the identification, designation and protection of sites, buildings and monuments across the Network, for the Register of Protected Sites and for consent for works.

  4. 6 September 2026

    Official website launched

    The Office launched heritage.gov.vin, carrying the Register of Protected Sites, the Heritage at Risk Register, guidance on proposing a designation and on consent for works, press releases and official statements.

  5. 6 September 2026

    The Register, the procedures and the survey

    On the day of its establishment the Office published the Register with eighteen entries and nine held for assessment, the first Heritage at Risk Register with five sites, its procedures for proposals and for consent, both open from 7 September, and the schedule of a Network-wide survey of buildings and monuments beginning on 14 September.

  6. Forthcoming

    First decisions, the completed survey and quarterly reporting

    The first quarterly statistical release, covering the quarter ending 30 September 2026, is due in October. Decisions on the nine held entries and on proposals received in September are expected in December 2026, when the survey reaches Meridian Court; the survey record will be published in early 2027. Each will be announced in the Newsroom.

Announcements are published in the Newsroom. For the Office's present responsibilities, see About the Heritage Office; for its reporting on the Register and its activity, see Statistics.