Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the proposal to cover the ancient Roman site at Richborough with solar panels.

Richborough Roman Fort is a scheduled ancient monument protected under the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Areas Act 1979. We are not aware of any application for solar panels on the site, but are aware of an ongoing planning application in the vicinity of the ancient monument, which is for the Local Planning Authority to decide. It would not be appropriate for the government to comment on an individual planning case such as this, as it may come before Government Ministers for a decision at a later date.