§ 11. Mrs. Ann Cryer (Keighley)How many children have benefited from his measures allowing free entry to national museums and galleries. [114864]
§ The Minister for the Arts (Mr. Alan Howarth)Since additional funds were provided at the start of April last year to enable free entry to those national museums and galleries sponsored by my Department which charge for admission, 4,275,951 children are estimated to have benefited up to the end of January. That figure represents an increase of some 18 per cent. on the same period in the previous 12 months.
§ Mrs. CryerI have a twofold financial interest in the measures because I have six grandchildren under eight and I am 60, so we will all benefit. Does my hon. Friend agree that the railway operating companies could offer cheap fares to school parties, which would be helpful because more children would go to national galleries and museums in term time, alleviating some of the pressures at weekends and in school holidays? I took three of my grandchildren to the science museum last August on three occasions, and each time the queues were so long that they missed many opportunities to participate in activities that I know they would have enjoyed.
Does my hon. Friend agree also that the onus is now on the Conservative party to make clear its policy on reintroducing charges for entry to our museums?
§ Mr. HowarthI think that there must be an error on my hon. Friend's birth certificate. However, I would not accuse her of misleading the House, so clearly when she takes her grandchildren to any of our national museums and galleries from the beginning of April she will, like them, benefit from free entry. Those places are popular and, as she says, sometimes the queues are long, and those problems certainly need to be managed. I take her point 16 about the desirability of finding ways to enable people to have cheap or even free public transport to national museums and galleries. There is a fund available: the museums and galleries access fund, funded and administered by the heritage lottery fund, which has ring-fenced £7 million to enable museums to run projects that will increase access to their collections. Subject to the discretion of trustees, it would be in order for railway operators to work with museums to take advantage of that funding.
§ Madam SpeakerOrder. Time is up. The last question took three minutes—we are taking far too long over questions and answers.