Purpose, scope and approach to an audit of the Paper 2 historic environment 19 December 2005 Introduction Evidence based policy making is a high priority for the Scottish Executive. Scottish Ministers have commissioned Historic Scotland to establish a regular audit of the historic environment to help develop the evidence base. An external Stakeholder Advisory Group will oversee the audit. This paper sets out the purpose and scope of the audit – and sets out some initial ideas about how it could be taken forward. Purpose of audit A great deal of information is collected by Historic Scotland, RCAHMS, local government, professional organisations and voluntary groups for their own purposes but much of this information is not collated on a national scale to provide an overview. The audit will provide a mechanism to develop the evidence base for the historic environment sector, to inform government policy making and promote collaboration and joint working. Definition of the historic environment There are a number of definitions of the historic environment (Annex 1). All of these are broad and wide ranging. While we can embrace a comprehensive definition of the historic environment, it is essential that the scope of the audit is focused and manageable. Scope of audit In broad terms the scope of the audit has been agreed with the Minister and Historic Scotland have been commissioned to: • pull together information on the historic ...