§ 3.12 p.m.
§ THE PAYMASTER GENERAL (VISCOUNT ECCLES)My Lords, I beg to move that this Bill be read a second time. This Bill gives effect to the proposals in the Government's White Paper published in January, 1971, and debated in your Lordships' House on March 2 following. The proposals were welcomed on that occasion and I need only remind the House of their essential features. Our objective is to make the British Library the cornerstone of the country's library system by bringing together into a single organisation the four existing institutions pre-eminent in their respective fields—the British Museum Library, which includes the National Reference Library for Science and Invention, the National Central Library, the National Lending Library for Science and Technology and the British National Bibliography. Legislation is not required to effect this integration in respect of the last three institutions. But although they are not mentioned in the Bill I shall have something to say about them later.
As your Lordships know, the establishment of the British Library calls for a massive programme of new buildings, the main feature of which will be the two national reference libraries on the Great Russell Street site. I must say that my noble and learned friend the Lord Chancellor, in addressing the House on March 16 on the future of the Public Record Office, inadvertently gave a wrong impression in saying that we do not have a site for the British Library. We have a site and we are now completing the purchase of those parts not already in Government ownership. These buildings will form part of a complex of museum and library that will add to the prestige of London, and certainly be without a rival in Europe.
Before I speak of the provisions of the Bill, your Lordships may care to have a short account of the progress which has been made in recent months. The White Paper envisaged the formation of an Organising Committee which, while the legislation was being prepared, was to lay the foundations of the new institution so that it could start its independent existence as a going concern. This Committee, 954 of which my noble friend Lord Ironside is a member, has done more efficient work in a shorter time than any similar body of which I have had experience. I should like to thank its members and the many experts who are assisting them, for the skill and devotion they have shown in coming to grips with a set of very intricate problems.
The Committee has had as the first of its two principal tasks that of establishing how the main functions of the new Library—reference, lending and bibliographic services—and the staffs needed to run them, can be smoothly and effectively organised within a single institution. The Committee has kept in the forefront of its thinking the immense variety of users of the Library's services. The House can be assured that the prospective demands of all classes of reader are being equally cared for.
The second task is to provide the architect with a schedule of the Library's requirements for accommodation of all kinds. One consideration in our minds has been the provision of the most technically advanced facilities and services for both the staff and the users. In a case like this much depends on whether the right architect has been appointed. Is he open-minded to all the changes in technology in the equipment of great libraries? We count ourselves extremely fortunate to have secured the services of Mr. Colin St. John Wilson as architect of the Bloomsbury buildings. I think I can say that no one in this country, and perhaps not in the world, has made a closer study by going all round the world, of the architects role in the building of a great national library. His designs will be put on view as soon as they are completed. Discussions will be held with the local authority on the provision of living accommodation and shops.
The first stage of the building in Bloomsbury is planned for completion in 1979, when the National Reference Library for Science and Invention, now so lamentably fragmented, can become operational in its new home. We consider this priority for the science collections and the patent community to be entirely justified by their present hampering difficulties. The Organising Committee expects to give the architect his brief before the end of April. In all this work we have had invaluable help from 955 the four constituent institutions and their staffs. In fact I cannot speak too highly of the way in which these institutions have contributed to our forward planning.
The buildings for the Library's lending services will be concentrated at Boston Spa. Here we are getting on very well. Construction has already begun to enable the National Central Library to be transferred to Yorkshire in the summer of 1973.
Very obviously we are planning for the long future. It would be wrong to bring forward legislation that was so tightly drawn that new developments, which we cannot foresee, might call for radical amendments in a comparatively short time. I hope, therefore, the House will agree that we are right so to draft the Bill that the objectives and constitution of the Library are described in wide-ranging terms. For example, the composition of the Board can be readily varied if circumstances show the need, and we are giving the Board powers to conduct its operations as it thinks most suited to its developing duties.
Coming to the provisions of the Bill, Clause 1 describes the comprehensive coverage of the materials which the Library will need to do its job. We have not forgotten that library materials are now appearing in new forms and that future ingenuity may well add to the list. The clause also makes clear how manifold will be the Library's duties at the apex of the national library system. It gives the Board powers to contribute financially and otherwise to other libraries and centres of information. Clause 1(3) (b) will be of interest to public and specialist libraries. For my part I like working in the atmosphere of a specialist library and I hope the Board will arrange satisfactory links with such libraries and will not try to do everything itself. But I must not anticipate. It will be for the Board to decide in what directions this power shall be used.
It is convenient to take together the provisions I have just mentioned and the powers to lend in Clause 1(4) and the similar powers in paragraphs 11(1) and 11(3) of the Schedule relating to matters incidental to the Board's role and to the acquisition and disposal of the property of the Board. We are dealing with an institution whose lending functions 956 go far wider than those of the British Museum Library, and therefore the approach adopted in the Bill is, I think, right in contrast to the alternative which we might have adopted which would limit and restrict by Statute the Board's powers of lending and disposal—quite apart from the extreme difficulty of determining in legislation what the restrictions should be. The clause gives a wide discretion, but at the same time your Lordships would expect us to secure by agreement reasonable safeguards over lending and the disposal of the most valuable items in the Board's collections. It seems best to consult with the Board on these matters. They will be responsible people and as far as my experience goes are likely to be more jealous of their collections than Ministers. The Bill provides restrictions on disposal of property which is subject to trusts or conditions, and I have no doubt the Board will want to respect these trusts and conditions.
Before I leave this part of the Bill I must explain the absence of any reference to the institutions other than the British Museum Library which are being incorporated in the new Library. Both the Trustees of the National Central Library and the Council of the British National Bibliography have powers to wind up their affairs and transfer their assets to the British Library without legislation, and arrangements are in hand to this end. I should like to thank these two bodies for their ready co-operation. When one considers how difficult it normally is to get a famous institution to surrender its separate identity we can see, in the good will of these two bodies, a proof that the conception of the British Library is of the highest interest and importance. Legislation is not required for the incorporation of the National Lending Library at Boston Spa, which is directly administered by the Department.
Your Lordships will be glad to know that there will be a single uniform staff structure in the British Library. The staff of all the institutions which will be incorporated in the Library—including approximately 1,200 members of the British Museum Library and National Lending Library—will enter the new institution on terms and conditions of service at least as favourable as they now enjoy.
957 I pass now to Clause 2, which deals with the composition of the British Library Board and with the provision of Advisory Councils for it or its departments. The Board itself is, as your Lordships will agree, crucial for the success of the new institution. The White Paper envisaged a body of up to 12 persons, including the Chairman. The Organising Committee gave this very careful consideration, and they came to the conclusion that this number was a little on the short side because the variety of duties of the new Library was even greater than we had at first thought. Therefore the Bill provides for a maximum of 14 and a minimum of 9. It appeared to us desirable to ensure this degree of flexibility both in the total numbers and in the choice which Clause 2(1) (a) gives, as between the full-time and part-time membership.
How then should the first Board be constituted? There are likely to be two main phases in the responsibilities of the Board. For the first ten years this body will be heavily preoccupied with the problems of transition. They will have to maintain the service in the existing buildings, to progress the new building, and to deal with the teething problems that will arise in developing an organisation of such range and complexity. Much is going to happen which we cannot now foresee so we think it would be unwise, at the outset, to lay down a hard and fast pattern for the Board's composition.
Having said that, it is clear that responsibility for the execution of the Board's policies ought to rest firmly in either a full-time Chairman, or a part-time Chairman and a Chief Executive. We were unanimous in thinking that the latter would be the more effective arrangement to make at the start—that is to say, a Chairman serving part-time and with him a full-time Chief Executive who would also be Deputy Chairman. These two members of the Board would share overall responsibility for all the Board has to do in the special circumstances of the initial stages, which may well last ten years. Three other full-time members would have charge, as executives responsible to the Chief Executive, of the main operational areas of the Library's services—reference, lending, bibliographic services and research. The 958 other main area, administration and finance, and other functions common to all parts of the Library, would be the natural responsibility of the Chief Executive. Your Lordships will see that we intend to create a Management Board and not a trustee structure.
Clauses 2(1)(b) and (c) recognise the special position of King George II's Library, and the unique role which the British Museum's collections as a whole will play in the total collections in the Board's charge. It will be a matter of satisfaction to the House that Her Majesty will appoint one part-time member and that continuity with the British Museum will be maintained by the appointment of another part-time member on the nomination of the British Museum Trustees. The part-time members, among their other functions, will, I am sure, contribute greatly to the success of the Library by relating its policies and operations closely to the needs of its users, and this too will be the main responsibility of the Advisory Councils which the Board will have the duty to constitute under Clause 2(3). Three of the part-time members of the Board will be appointed after consultation respectively with the Secretaries of State for Trade and Industry, for Scotland and for Wales. The interests of literature and science, of manufacturing industry and commerce, and of the patent community will be taken into account in selecting members for the Board or for the Advisory Councils.
Subsections (1) to (5) of Clause 3 deal with the transfer of the contents of the British Museum Library Departments from the ownership of the Museum Trustees to that of the British Library Board. These provisions have been agreed with the Trustees. In case there is any doubt about the adequacy of consultation with the British Museum, I hope that my noble friend Lord Trevelyan will say a word on this aspect of our work. There is provision in Clause 3(3), which will, I am sure, strike everyone as sensible, to enable the Trustees and the Board to review together and agree on the appropriate destination of particular items now in the Library or elsewhere in the Museum. For example, there are some items—the number is not large—which, for traditional or other reasons, have been located in the Library though not falling 959 within the description in paragraphs (a) and (b) of subsection (1) of Clause 3.
I have no doubt that the most difficult item of all is the stamp collection I only hope that the Board and the Trustees of the British Museum can come to an agreed decision as to where the stamp collection should go. It is a most remarkable collection and I myself hope very much that when the British Library comes into existence we shall see it put in a place worthy of it, where it is even better shown than it is now. The provisions in Clause 3(6) are designed to cover the period until the full range of new accommodation in Bloomsbury is ready and the Board can transfer the collections from the existing building, for which of course the Trustees will retain responsibility.
I do not think there are any points of difficulty in Clause 4 to which I need draw the special attention of the House. Subsection (1) of Clause 4 transfers to the Board the legal deposit provisions which now relate to the British Museum. Subsection (2) would make the Board an exempt charity. The British Museum has always had this status, and the Bill already provides—for example, in Clause 5(3)—for the kind of supervision which the compulsory provisions of the Charities Act 1960 would give. The provisions in Clause 5 relating to grants to the Board from the Secretary of State must be for final determination in another place. But in drafting we have borne in mind the wording used in other Statutes to express an appropriate relationship in financial matters between the Government, as the provider of grants, and the independent body receiving these grants. As the White Paper made clear, we wish the British Library to enjoy the maximum freedom over its internal affairs which is consistent with the broad objectives of Government policy.
Here I should make two points: first, that there is no intention to make any change in the current practice of free admission to the Library; and, secondly, that the cost of sending by post over a million books a year—that is the present figure and it goes up all the time—borrowed from the enlarged operations at Boston Spa, and of making copies of extracts from books and journals, is so great that any Government must have the power to see that reasonable charges are made.
§ LORD AVEBURYMy Lords, I am most grateful to the noble Viscount for what he has said about free admission to the Library. But is he aware that to get to the manuscript library it is necessary to go through the Museum proper, and how will persons using the manuscript facilities be physically able to get there without paying at the turnstiles?
§ VISCOUNT ECCLESMy Lords, they will not be asked to pay. Anyone who can show that he is going to the Library or to the manuscript department as a genuine reader or researcher will not be asked to pay entrance charges.
§ LORD AVEBURYAs a matter of fact, my Lords, I have a ticket for the manuscript section of the Library. What is to stop me presenting that at the turnstiles and then going to look at something else?
§ VISCOUNT ECCLESNothing, my Lords; but I hope that the noble Lord has a fairly good conscience. We have also to be prepared for technological developments, such as facsimile transmission which will enable the reader to use material at a distance. It seems right to provide now for a charge to be made for such use if it turns out to be expensive, which it very well may be. The Explanatory Memorandum indicates that we expect the total provision from the Consolidated Fund to be about £6 million in 1973–74, rising to about £7 million in five years' time; this expenditure being almost entirely offset by the present expenditure on the British Museum and other libraries which will form part of the British Library.
I hope that this brief explanation of the clauses which I thought would be of most interest to the House will be sufficient. In conclusion, I should like to express my belief that the establishment of the British Library not only will put an end to a very long period of uncertainty, but will be of lasting benefit to the library services of this country; and from what I have already heard it will be a model for other countries as well. The Government intend to set up the Board as soon as is practicable after the Royal Assent has been given, provided that the Houses of Parliament pass the Bill which I warmly commend to the House. My Lords, I beg to move.
§ Moved, That the Bill be now read 2a.—(Viscount Eccles.)