“The Department for Culture, Media and Sport produced targets to boost visitor numbers to historic attractions from three ‘priority’ groups. However, nobody at the Department knew how to meet the targets or even if the targets could be met. No-one in the Department really understood how to engage with the groups that had been targeted and, to cap it all, there was no way to find out if the Department’s efforts had produced a result. Two of the three targets were then missed, but it’s hardly surprising that nobody at the Department can say why.

“70 per cent of the population already visit historic sites.  This is a commendable achievement.  However, the Department risks wasting its time and our money by setting inane targets in order to produce statistics rather than achieving something tangible”.