Listed Building - Scotland

Scotland

In Scotland, listing was begun by a provision in the Town and Country Planning (Scotland) Act 1947, and the current legislative basis for listing is the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) (Scotland) Act 1997. As with other matters regarding planning, conservation is a power devolved to the Scottish Parliament and the Scottish Government. The authority for listing rests with Historic Scotland, an executive agency of the Scottish Government, which inherited this role from the Scottish Development Department in 1991. Listed building consent must be obtained from local authorities prior to any alteration to a listed structure.

The scheme for classifying buildings is:

• Category A: "buildings of national or international importance, either architectural or historic, or fine little-altered examples of some particular period, style or building type."
• Category B: "buildings of regional or more than local importance, or major examples of some particular period, style or building type which may have been altered."
• Category C(S): "buildings of local importance, lesser examples of any period, style, or building type, as originally constructed or moderately altered; and simple traditional buildings which group well with others in categories A and B."

There are approximately 47,400 listed buildings in Scotland. Of these, around 8 percent (some 3,800) are Category A, and 51 percent (24,000) are Category B, with the rest listed at Category C(s).