It is two years since the All Party Parliamentary Archaeology Group produced its report The Current State of Archaeology in the United Kingdom, and now the MPs and peers have compiled a review into how many of their key recommendations have been implemented. Current responsibility for archaeology is scattered across many government departments, to the detriment of the industry. The review found there has been 'no apparent progress' on the recommendation that the Department of Culture Media and Sport (DCMS) should give heritage a higher priority and establish a committee chaired by a minister to co- ordinate archaeology policy. Indeed, things have gone backwards. The review points out: 'English Heritage [EH] and the Heritage Lottery Fund would appear to have an uncertain future. The funding to the sector in real terms has been cut dramatically in recent years'. Alarmingly, 'since February 2004 there has been no one in DCMS with specific archaeological expertise.'

APPAG recommended improved training for field archaeologists who should be paid as much as other graduate entry level professions, such as local authority planning officers, civil engineers and university lecturers. The review says: 'The IFA, the Standing Conference of Archaeological Unit Managers (SCAUM) and Prospect are currently discussing a national collective pay bargaining mechanism for archaeological units,' although there are no details about how far these discussions have progressed. There also seems to have been little progress on training. 'The Archaeological Training Forum is continuing to take the lead on a number of initiatives to embed skills development within the sector and thereby encourage high standards,' the review says. 'The IFA is undertaking a number of relevant projects looking at training, CPD [Continuing Personal Development], etc on behalf of the Forum.' If any digger has had the benefit of their 'skills development' being 'embedded within the sector', please write in - we’d love to hear about it. As for CPD, this has been an idea kicking around for years, with minimal impact on the lives of ordinary archaeologists.

APPAG recommended that a franchise- based system replace the present system of competitive tendering. The review says: 'Feedback has demonstrated much scepticism of the value of this approach within the archaeological community, although others have argued that a more detailed study by a competition expert would be beneficial to assess the options.' This assessment effectively kills the franchise idea. In fact, there is unlikely to be any change in the near future since 'the consultation on the new Planning Policy Statement which covers the PPG 15 and 16 guidance notes is now deferred for 2-3 years until completion of EH pilot projects.'

The postponed change to PPG16 also means that developers still will not have to contribute towards the costs of the long- term storage of archaeological archives in museums.

APPAG’s recommendation that organisations like the Institute of Field Archaeologists (IFA) and the Council for British Archaeology (CBA) merge was met with incredulity at the time, and the revew says that amalgamation 'is not appropriate.' The organisations are 'working together closely' through the Historic Environment Forum which together with Heritage Link lobbies for heritage interests.

On the plus side, the Portable Antiquities Scheme is one success highlighted by the review. Another is that the government has accepted that Sites and Monuments Records (SMRs) should be made statutory, although the review concedes that 'it is difficult to see how this is to be achieved in a climate of Local Authority resource constraints.' The changes will cost at least UKP8 million.

The APPAG report marked a step forward in detailing the serious problems within UK archaeology and made a valuable contribution to the debate about possible solutions. But why has progress been so slow? Archaeologists deserve an answer.

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APPG

APPG 2004 update

Results of BAJR Poll - 2003