IHBC Listed Buildings Prosecutions Database

The Institute of Historic Building Conservation (IHBC) Listed Buildings Prosecutions Database was created in 1996 to help establish the levels of activity across the UK prior to a high profile case eventually resulting in the successful prosecution of a Member of Parliament for unauthorised alterations to a listed building.

The data subsequently compiled by IHBC was essential background to the CLG Best Practice Guidance on Listed Building Prosecutions published in December 2006. It is the Institute’s position that the government’s withdrawal of the document as its formal policy guidance (as part of wider reduction of advice and guidance) does not in any way invalidate the content and it remains an invaluable source to which members of the Institute are encouraged to continue to refer. Both the database and the good practice guidance further the Secretary of State’s long-standing policy in Planning Policy Guidance Note 15 (Planning and the Historic Environment - superseded in 2010 by Planning Policy Statement 5: Planning and the Historic Environment) to encourage prosecution where a good case can be made.

In August 2025, Bob Kindred who complies the list for IHBC wrote an update in the IHBC news and blogsite:

"The Institute notes that perseverance eventually pays off. When North Devon DC served a Listed Building Enforcement Notice in 2021 requiring the reinstatement within 12 months of a historic balcony on a listed building in Ilfracombe and offered assistance that was not taken up, the council successfully prosecuted the owners in Barnstaple Magistrates’ Court at the Exeter Combined Court Centre in March. This is the first LB prosecution brought by North Devon to appear on the national Database."

"Readers are reminded that successful prosecutions for listed building offences have often found the IHBC’s on-line UK LB Prosecutions Database invaluable in briefing local authority legal and/or enforcement teams; and that the Database and its companion resource Historic England ‘Heritage Crime Guidance for Sentencers’ have been equally helpful to the courts when considering sentencing. Other guidance on this subject also appears in the IHBC Toolbox."

"The Database is there to help you. Started in 1996 to provide comparative data, it relies on volunteered information from our members; however, the Institute has noted recently that some local authority prosecutions have been successfully concluded but the details have not been forwarded the to us and we have been reliant instead on the hit-and-miss coverage from local newspapers and can’t follow up if either our Database or the HE advice has been useful to the LPA of the courts. In informing IHBC directly we can follow particularly cases resulting in low fines, to see if these were informed (or not) by the database or the Historic England guidance."

The database is in two parts:

Size of Fine (League table A)
Date (League Table B).

Updates will be made as new cases are notified to the Institute (contact details below). IHBC continues to rely on volunteered information from heritage and enforcement professionals and page 41 of the CLG good practice guidance also encourages the submission of data. Cases include not only unauthorised alterations and demolitions to listed buildings but also unauthorised demolitions of unlisted buildings in conservation areas.

Notification of further cases is constantly sought (irrespective of the success of the outcome). Please forward details of cases especially if you have not done so before. This will help to maintain the usefulness of the Database and be a cross-reference for the effectiveness of the legislation and policy guidance.

Details of new cases would be very welcome and should be sent to ihbc .org.uk government@ihbc.org.uk preferably in broadly the format in the main Table: size of fine; costs awarded; the nature of the offence; address; grade of building; type of court (Magistrates or Crown); any other information which would be informative (e.g. a guilty plea or observations by the court).