The Government has adopted as best practice the Rules set out in the Annex to the 2001 UNESCO Convention on the Protection of the Underwater Cultural Heritage. The Rules indicate that the protection of underwater cultural heritage through in situ preservation should be considered as the first option. Consequently, no estimate has been made of the cost of recovering the anchor of HMT Empire Windrush (the wreck of which is understood to lie at a depth of c. 8,500 ft, 23 nautical miles off the coast of Algeria).

The wrecks in question – the SMS Kronprinz Wilhelm, SMS Konig, SMS Markgraf and SMS Karlsruhe – lie within Scapa Flow, Orkney. They are protected as scheduled monuments under the terms of the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Areas Act 1979. Designation of scheduled monuments is a devolved matter for the Scottish Government and it has given responsibility for this to Historic Environment Scotland.

Many scheduled monuments are owned privately and their ownership can change. This does not change their protected status. The proposed sale of the wrecks by their current owner does not change the fact that they are scheduled monuments. Permission to undertake works to the Scapa Flow wrecks will continue to require the prior written consent of Historic Environment Scotland.

Historic Environment Scotland and the Scottish Government is considering changing the designation of the wrecks from scheduled monuments to a Historic Marine Protected Area, a designation which was introduced in Scotland by the Marine (Scotland) Act 2010. A public consultation about this proposal has recently taken place and the results will be published soon. Decisions about designating Historic Marine Protected Areas are taken by Scottish Ministers.

The National Memorial Arboretum at Alrewas, Staffordshire, already hosts a memorial to those British Service personnel who served in Palestine, erected by the Palestine Veterans' Association in 2001. The Government has no plans to create a further memorial at any other location.