Cororners and Justice Bill Treasure Amendments Finalised

Submitted by Seren Langley on Fri, 2009-11-06 16:03
in

Code of Practice The Portable Antiquities Scheme has had a recent notable success with amendments to the Treasure Act in the Coroners and Justice Bill, thanks to the efforts of supporters in the House of Lords – Lords Redesdale, Howarth and Renfrew.

After a final debate in the House of Lords yesterday, the new Bill has been approved. The following is an extract from a letter between two Lords, dated 3 November 2009, which describes the precursor to some of the amendments.

Treasure (new clause ‘Duty to notify Coroner for Treasure etc of acquisition of certain objects’ and amendments to Schedule 21

During a debate on 26 October on amendments tabled by Lord Redesdale (Hansard, col. 981-991) I undertook to consider further proposals to strengthen the protection of cultural objects. The new clause will place a duty on those who acquire objects which they believe to be treasure, and where there is no evidence that they have been previously reported to the Coroner for Treasure, to make such a report. This duty would tackle the loophole whereby there is currently no obligation to report an object to a coroner if the finder of the object sold it on by one means or another. The amendments to Schedule 21 will, in turn, amend the Treasure Act to reflect the practice that has arisen, of persons reporting finds or acquisition of objects to the Finds Liaison Officer attached to a local museum instead of to the local coroner. The Secretary of State will be able to designate a designated officer, likely to be a Finds Liaison Officer, to whom the object may be reported, in addition to the Coroner for Treasure.

Senuna Hoard Roger Bland, Head of Portable Antiquities and Treasure, responded:

This is a real success. The first amendment is stronger than we expected because it includes a presumption, if no other evidence is available, that an object will have been found after 24 September 1997 (when the Treasure Act 1996 came into effect) and in England and Wales. The second amendment is a late addition and comes closer than we imagined to putting FLOs on a statutory basis.

At the successful launch of the PAS Annual Report also reaffirmed their support for the Scheme. See our Portable Antiquities pages in the Conservation section.

Read the full text of amendments to the Coroners and Justice Bill, with ‘Treasure’ clauses scattered throughout document (PDF 95KB).