Annual Scrutiny of the Royal Commission on Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales

I am writing to thank you for your letter of 5 November 2025 in which you offered to raise with Welsh Government and with the Minister for Culture, Skills and Social Partnership the impacts on the Royal Commission of the yearly reductions in our budget and the continuing uncertainty over our future, either as an independent body or combined with Cadw as part of a new historic environment service.

It is very encouraging to Commissioners and staff to know that our work is so strongly supported by the Committee, and to know that we have such influential advocates for our work within the Senedd.

I think it is also true to say that we have a great deal of support amongst the people of Wales, judging by the popularity of our events and social media posts and the warm feedback that we receive from those who use our online and in-person enquiry services. The fact that our Capeli Cymru project has been awarded such a substantial grant by the National Lottery Heritage Fund also points to the esteem in which the Commission is held, and we look forward to being able to deliver another exemplary project that will make a real difference to the fate of places of worship in Wales in the years to come.

That project is just one indication of the ways in which the Commission has evolved over the last decade. Where once we might only have been concerned with creating records of buildings and archaeology, we now strive to relate our work to the issues that people care about.

For example, over the summer, in response to popular demand and with a continued emphasis on mental and physical wellbeing, we delivered 15 talks, 9 guided walks and 5 workshops attracting more than 750 participants, and this events programme involved collaborative working with partners including Cadw, Eryri National Park, Pembrokeshire Coast National Park, North Wales Wildlife Trust, the University of Wales Centre for Advanced Welsh and Celtic Studies, and the Operation Nightingale project, which supports injured and recovering service personnel and veterans.

We ask only to be able continue our work and we believe we give good value for money. Colleagues have responded with commendable flexibility and goodwill to the extra demands made upon them by the loss of posts to voluntary severance following the 10.5 per cent cut in our budget that occurred in 2024-25. Our very modest request is to see a return to the levels of funding that we enjoyed before that cut and we are grateful for the Committee's expression of support towards this aim.

Yours sincerely

Christopher Catling

Chief Executive