Government Guidance to Ensure Statues of Historic Figures Are Kept in Place

Culture Secretary wants cultural institutions to ‘educate and inform’ rather than ‘erase the parts of our history that we are uncomfortable with.’

Protesters throwing the statue of Edward Colston into Bristol harbour during a Black Lives Matter protest rally in Bristol, England, on June 7, 2020. Ben Birchall/PA Media

Ministers have published new guidance to “retain and explain” historic statues that have been subject to removal campaigns.

Guidance released on Thursday will apply to any statue or monument accessible to the public in the local community in England which faces calls for its removal or relocation on “the grounds of changing views about the people or events it commemorates.”