Ms Virginia Teehan:

As the Chairman said, we have 31 heritage officers throughout the country and tomorrow we are launching the publication of the review of this hugely successful programme. We will continue to support the payment of salaries to heritage officers and provide an annual budget to them. We are increasing that budget annually because the delivery on the ground is so significant. Heritage officers are also central to the delivery of National Heritage Week, which has been hugely successful during the Covid pandemic. We transferred it to an online platform and it has been very good for communities. It has helped to sustain activity and a sense of connectivity and well-being. The programme probably needs additional support, especially in the larger local authorities where heritage officers are very busy. We will look to scale that as appropriate. It is a wonderful programme. We are very proud of it and the heritage officers are a great group of people.