Consultation outcome

Guidance for UK components of a transboundary or serial transnational future nomination

Updated 4 July 2023

1. UNESCO guidelines

The Operational Guidelines^{[footnote 1]} provide clear guidance for different types of nominated property. In addition to sites in the territory of a single State Party, a nominated property can also either:

a). be located in the territory of State Parties with adjacent borders (transboundary)^{[footnote 2]}
b). be located in the territory of different States Parties (serial transnational) if there are 2 or more component parts^{[footnote 3]}

All World Heritage Site nominations must be included on a State Party’s Tentative List for at least 1 year before undergoing the Preliminary Assessment process. The final nomination dossier can then only be submitted to the World Heritage Centre at least 1 year following receipt of the Preliminary Assessment report. Tentative Lists are reviewed around every 10 years.

For transboundary or serial transnational bids, this means each component site needs to be included on their respective State Party’s Tentative List.

For future serial transnational or transboundary nominations the nomination process is then led by one State Party who is responsible for submitting the full nomination (or nomination strategy) to the World Heritage Centre. The nomination must be developed with the full cooperation of the State Parties from all the component parts.

Should a new state party indicate that it wished to include an additional property to the transnational site published on the Tentative Lists and before the nomination is completed, then it must demonstrate that the proposed additional property makes a substantial contribution to the Outstanding Universal Value published on the Tentative List.

Should a new state party indicate that it wishes to include an additional property to the transnational site after it has been inscribed on the List of World Heritage Sites, then a new nomination will be required for the revised property.

2. UK Policy on World Heritage Site nominations

The UK is committed to only nominating sites every other year to support the wider UNESCO ambition to increase representation of underrepresented regions on the World Heritage List.

The UK is committed to reviewing their Tentative List every 10 years. UK sites wishing to lead a transboundary or serial transnational property nomination, should apply to be on the UK Tentative List as part of the Tentative List review.

3. Guidance for UK sites joining transboundary or serial transnational property nominations

All component properties of a transboundary or serial transnational site must demonstrate each makes a substantial contribution to an agreed Statement of Outstanding Universal Value.

There are occasions when sites in the UK are identified as having potential to demonstrate Outstanding Universal Value as part of a transboundary or serial transnational nomination being developed by another State Party.

In these instances, with appropriate evidence (comparative analysis and technical review) from the lead State Party, the UK State Party (DCMS) is able to submit the new future nomination to the Tentative List without the need for the UK Tentative List Review assessment process and outside the formal 10 year review process.

If a site in the UK has been approached to become part of a transboundary or serial transnational property nomination led by another State Party and wishes to be placed on the UK Tentative List, the following steps should be taken:

1. DCMS should be informed about the development stage of the proposal (i.e. whether there are firm proposals to proceed with a transnational nomination to UNESCO by the other State Party, whether the proposal is on its Tentative List and that a draft timeline to nomination has been established).

2. DCMS and Historic England (the government’s statutory advisor), plus the relevant devolved administration and devolved heritage body (where separate), be invited to engage with the inter-governmental steering group (also known as the joint management committee, or similar body that is overseeing the management of the bid) to explore the comparative analysis, the proposed bid and potential Outstanding Universal Value. This should include considering if it can be demonstrated that the site could make a substantial contribution to the Outstanding Universal Value of the series as a whole, which may require calling upon expert advice. An acceptable draft statement of Outstanding Universal Value should then be mutually agreed before an approach is made to include the transnational property on respective Tentative Lists, in order to fully understand the nature of the proposal and the contribution that the UK site may be able to make.

3. The inter-governmental steering group should then jointly agree with the UK, if and when the UK site should be added to the UK’s Tentative List.

4. When agreement is reached, the lead State Party should write to the UK State Party (DCMS) to request the UK site be added to the UK’s Tentative List. This must take place at least 24 months prior to a nomination being submitted.

5. Once the above has taken place, a recommendation will be made to Ministers whether or not to add the UK site on the UK’s Tentative List. For sites located in devolved areas, local Ministers will also be consulted as part of this process.

6. If added to the UK’s Tentative List, DCMS and Historic England (the government’s statutory advisor), plus the relevant devolved administration and devolved heritage body (where separate), should be invited to join the inter-governmental steering group.

7. Once on the UK Tentative List, the UK site component would be subject to the same process as all the others on the UK’s Tentative List, including national Technical Evaluation.

8. The Technical Evaluation takes place prior to the completion of the nomination dossier in order to review the draft nomination and to provide advice and guidance on any issues or areas of concern to be addressed before the approval to submit the nomination dossier. For transnational or transboundary nominations, the UK Technical Evaluation would only review the UK site.

1. Operational Guidelines for the implementation of the World Heritage Convention, 31 July 2021, UNESCO ↩

2. OG para 134-136 ↩

3. OG para 137-139 ↩