This was a supporting detail page of the main policy document.
World Heritage Sites are places, ranging from forests and lakes to buildings and cities, that are ‘listed’ by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO). Places are listed as World Heritage Sites because of their special cultural or physical significance. The Department for Culture, Media and Sport is responsible for making sure the UK complies with UNESCO’s World Heritage Convention, and for nominating UK sites for World Heritage status. The UK currently has 28 World Heritage Sites. The nomination process We nominate UK sites from a tentative list of future nominations to be World Heritage Sites, which UNESCO’s expert advisers assess. Read about the selection criteria on UNESCO’s website. Sites on the tentative list which want to be nominated to be World Heritage Site have to complete a technical evaluation. The next round of technical evaluations takes place in Autumn 2013. You can also view the ‘state of conservation reports’ and ‘statements of outstanding universal value’ that accompany each World Heritage Site.