HL Deb 12 November 1974 vol 354 cc691-2

2.57 p.m.

LORD REIGATE

My Lords, I beg leave to ask the Question which stands in my name on the Order Paper.

The Question was as follows:

To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they have now completed the review of the 2½p admission charge for children to the Whitehall Banqueting Hall, which was announced on July 4, 1974.

BARONESS BIRK

My Lords, since I now deal with these matters in the Department of the Environment, I have decided to review the whole question of charges for children at historic buildings and monuments of this kind.

LORD REIGATE

My Lords, while congratulating the noble Baroness on the new duties which she has assumed, may I ask whether she can say what the abolition of this particular charge and of charges generally would cost? Also, does she not agree, in view of all the furore that there was about admission charges, that this is a particularly petty exception?

BARONESS BIRK

My Lords, regarding the charge for children at the Banqueting Hall, which is the subject of the noble Lord's Question, the amount of money there was £29 in 1973. It is because this involves other matters as well that I have decided to review the whole question. So far as the noble Lord's wider point is concerned, just as it is traditional for entry to museums to be free—and this is why this freedom was reinstated by the Labour Government—it has also been an accepted tradition that there should be a charge for entry to historic buildings and monuments. To make a complete abolition, I must say, would be impossible in these particularly difficult economic times.

LORD ROBBINS

My Lords, could not the noble Baroness make an exception in this instance, in that the ceiling of the Banqueting Hall represents one of the half-dozen best ceiling decorations in Europe and consequently can be regarded, as it were, as an annex of the National Gallery, although not legally so.

BARONESS BIRK

My Lords, as I re plied to the noble Lord, the Question deals specifically with charges to children. I have promised that I will be reviewing this matter in relation not only to the Banqueting Hall but to all ancient monuments and historic buildings.