In the United Kingdom, the Monuments Protection Programme oversees about 13,000 protected monuments, of an approximately 600, 000 known archaeological sites of all periods. It is thought that approximately 10% of this larger total are of sufficient national importance to merit scheduling as ancient monuments. The initial evaluation will be made from descriptions of sites in the central National Archaeological Record and the Sites and Monuments Records for English counties. For definition and classification, eight criteria will operate. They fall into two groups: 1) those that relate to classes of monuments (i.e., period, rarity group value, and diversity) and 2) those that reflect the characteristics of an individual monument (i.e., survival/condition, fragility/vulnerability, documentation, and potential). There are two additional important characteristics: amenity value and general conservation value, which should be included in the characteristics. Having selected a short-list of sites from the records, field inspection is necessary to define the boundaries of the monument, to explain its significance to the landowner and occupier, and to assess its future management needs. The fieldwork is expected to require 23 full-time archaeologists and take 7-10 years to complete. This cannot be regarded, however, as a once-and-for-all exercise because it can only be as good as the records on which it is based.