Member

In his comments earlier, the noble Lord, Lord Hanson of Flint, who is no longer in his place, suggested that the Government had selected the two dozen memorials set out in Schedule 12 because they are the listed monuments designated at grade 1, the highest tier of listing. I must say, as a former Heritage Minister, that that strikes me as flawed reasoning. The listed buildings regime focuses on the special architectural or historic merits of a built asset, whereas our focus here, surely, should be on the event or the person being commemorated. It does not matter whether the statue is particularly beautiful or well-accomplished; it is about the significance of the historical event, the war and the wartime leaders that it recalls.