§ Mr. McNamaraTo ask the hon. Member for Roxburgh and Berwickshire, representing the House of Commons Commission, who sits on the House of Commons Advisory Committee on Works of Art; when this Committee was established and who its Chairman is; if he will(a) publish the minutes of meetings of this body and (b) place them in the Library; how many times the Committee has met in the past two years; what plans he has to make the work of the Committee more public; what the criteria are for commissioning and purchasing artworks for the House; what the mechanisms are for consultation about purchasing policy; what steps (i) hon. Members and (ii) members of the public may take to nominate a particular work of art to be (A) purchased and (B) borrowed for display in the House; what is the value of works of art (1) on display and (2) in 539W storage in the Parliamentary estate; and what is the value of purchases of artworks in each of the buildings that comprise the Parliamentary estate in each of the last three years. [20893]
§ Mr. KirkwoodI am informed that the Speaker's Advisory Committee on Works of Art was established in 1956, in response to a report on works of art in the House of Commons by a committee chaired by Viscount Hinchingbrooke. Mr. Speaker appointed the following hon. Members to the current Advisory Committee on 11 July 2001:
- Mr. Tony Banks
- Mr. John Burnett
- Frank Cook
- Mr. Mark Fisher
- Mr. Robert Jackson
- Mr. Hugo Swire
- Mr. Michael Trend
- Derek Wyatt.
The Committee elected Mr. Banks as Chairman at its meeting on 18 July 2001.
Under the Committee's terms of reference, which have been endorsed by the Commission, the Committee shall:
(a)advise Mr. Speaker on any matters relating to works of art in general which he might consider appropriate;(b)each year, approve the conservation and curatorial programme for the historic collection of works of art, furniture and frescoes etc;(c)consider the policy on the future of the collections and on the historic decorative interior and report from time to time to the Accommodation and Works Committee; and(d)at the request of the Domestic Committees, advise on proposed changes to the historic decorative interior of the Palace and other matters connected with the parliamentary estate.In addition, the expenditure of that part of the House of Commons: Administration Estimate for the acquisition of new works of art is delegated to the Committee.
I am informed that the Committee has met on 11 occasions since 1 December 1999. It is not the Committee's practice to publish minutes of its meetings or place them in the Library. The Chairman is a member of the Accommodation and Works Committee and reports regularly to that Committee on the work of the Advisory Committee. I will invite the House of Commons Commission to consider what information could usefully be published in its annual report. The Committee is keen to make the content of the Permanent Collection of Works of Art more widely known both inside and outside Parliament. Press releases are issued to publicise important new acquisitions or the acceptance into the Collection of significant commissions.
The Committee seeks to acquire for the Collection works of art which illustrate the history of Parliament, which are of outstanding artistic quality and which represent good value for money. The Committee seeks in particular to acquire representations of Prime Ministers and party leaders. Expert advice on the artistic and material quality of potential purchases is sought from the Honorary Advisers to the Committee, the Curator and his staff and, where appropriate, directors of relevant national institutions. The Chairman welcomes suggestions from 540W hon. Members and from members of the public for purchases or loans. He wrote to all hon. Members in April this year inviting them to put forward suggestions for inclusion on a new acquisition list.
No assessment has been made of the total market value of works of art on display in the parliamentary estate, but works in store are worth approximately £50,000. For the estate over the last three years the value of purchases was:
Year £ 1998–99 62,653 1999–2000 69,904 2000–01 60,046 In addition, a special purchasing budget was approved for the House of Commons in respect of Portcullis House. Expenditure in the last three years was:
Year £ 1998–99 18,500 1999–2000 90,711 2000–01 99,823