HL Deb 24 February 1981 vol 417 cc1013-6

5.25 p.m.

The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Northern Ireland Office (Lord Elton)

My Lords, I beg to move that the draft Museums (Northern Ireland) Order 1981 which was laid before this House on 3rd February be approved. The Museums Order which I bring before the House today pulls together Northern Ireland law on museums and art galleries and brings it up to date. It re-enacts with some amendments the statutes under which the Ulster Museum and the Ulster Folk and Transport Museum—which are Northern Ireland's two national museums exist. It replaces the legislation under which district councils may provide and maintain museums and art galleries. This legislation is much fragmented and some of it dates back to the mid-19th century. There has again been need for some amendment.

The museums code in Northern Ireland is not voluminous but the need to tidy it up has been clear for some time. There is also in Northern Ireland, as elsewhere in the United Kingdom, an increasing interest in museum matters, and in the preservation of the heritage. We are proud of both our national museums in Northern Ireland and with good reason. The Ulster Museum is a traditional museum. By that, I do not mean that it is not forward-looking or active. It has a very forward-looking and active body of trustees to ensure that it is. I use the phrase only to distinguish it from the Ulster Folk and Transport Museum to which I shall return. The Ulster Museum houses the Province's principal art gallery, and it has departments also in local history, botany and zoology, antiquities, geology and industrial archaeology. It came into being in 1831 as the collection of the Belfast Natural History Society. It later merged with the municipal Museum and Art Gallery, and in 1961 it became by statute the Ulster Museum under the management of trustees. A major extension was completed in the early 1970s.

Although the Ulster Museum is much the older institution, the Ulster Folk and Transport Museum pre-dates it as a national museum by three years. In 1958, there was formed by statute an Ulster Folk Museum under trustees, for the purpose of illustrating the way of life of the people of Northern Ireland, past and present, and their traditions. It was a good idea, the timing was right, and it was successful from the start. A Folk Park was created at Cultra on the shores of Belfast Lough in the early 1960s. Its terms of reference were sufficiently wide to enable the Belfast Corporation's Transport Museum to be amalgamated with it by amending statute in 1967 and the title was then changed to the Ulster Folk and Transport Museum.

In the short period of its history the Ulster Folk and Transport Museum has established itself as one of the leading museums of its type in Europe. It occupies an extensive and very attractive site in which are reconstructed many old buildings from different parts of the Province. These buildings, extensively equipped with contemporary furniture and artefacts, illustrate many facets of different periods and different occupations of their original inhabitants. In some of them, traditional crafts are still carried on and visitors can discuss with their practitioners all that is germane to them. Like the Ulster Museum, it has strong research and educational functions.

The Ulster Museum and the Ulster Folk and Transport Museum, then, are both trustee museums of national status, substantial institutions, creatures of statute, drawing their financial aid directly from central Government. The appreciation of the Northern Ireland public of their two national museums is shown by the fact that between them last year they attracted over 350,000 visitors.

Part II of the draft order concerns these two national museums. Articles 3 and 4 confirm the continued existence of the two trustee bodies, and also detail the composition of these two bodies and define their duties. The only change of any consequence is to make some adjustments to the make-up of the two trustee bodies in the light of representations made during the consultation period. A trustee to each institution may now be appointed by the Ulster Polytechnic. In the case of the Ulster Museum, the right to make appointments to the trustee body has been given to district councils in addition to Belfast City Council; as a consequence, the number of trustees appointed by the Minister has been reduced.

Article 5 also largely re-enacts existing law. It does so by drawing together the separate but very similar provisions in the existing statutes each of the two national museums. There are two minor changes: the Ulster Folk and Transport Musuem no longer needs the power to establish a reserve or sinking fund, and this is removed; the level of fines for infringement of museum by-laws is increased to a level more realistic in the present day.

Article 6 re-enacts without amendment the requirement on the trustees to appoint a director. Article 7 empowers the Department of Education to provide financial support to the two museums and requires the trustees to seek departmental approval if they wish to borrow or invest money. Annual reports must be prepared by the trustees under Article 8 and copies sent to the department; and the same article also obliges the trustees to keep accounts upon which the Comptroller and Auditor-General will report. These articles merely recapitulate existing provisions in a more convenient form.

So much the code for the national museums. Part III of the order is concerned with the local museums code, with museums and art galleries provided by district councils. The powers of district councils for these purposes rest on statutes as old as 1855 and 1891. The statutory provision in England and Wales was updated some years ago, and we are now doing the same for Northern Ireland.

Article 9 empowers a district council to provide museums and art galleries. As a result of comments received during the consultation period, it has been decided that district councils need not seek the department's approval to make provision except where they are seeking grant-aid. The same article, in its second paragraph, permits district councils to acquire land compulsorily for museum purposes. In the remainder of Article 9, power is given to a district council to contribute to a museum or art gallery provided by another district council or to one provided by any other person.

Article 10 re-enacts the existing provisions about by-laws. These attract the general provisions for by-laws in the 1972 Local Government Act. Among other things, this means that any by-laws must be approved by the Department of Education. Hitherto, in the existing legislation, central Government have not been given a power to make grants towards provision of museums and art galleries by district councils. Article 11 confers such a power on the Department of Education, and while this is an important new provision, I must regretfully say that the payment of such grants cannot be contemplated in the immediate future.

The first schedule sets out the provisions applying to the trustees of the two national museums; this represents almost a complete restatement of existing provisions. The minor amendments which have been made are for the sake of bringing the two sets of largely similar provisions into conformity. The remainder of the order, which consists of Articles 12 and 13 and the second schedule, is concerned with the repeal of legislation which is obsolete or unnecessary, with a minor amendment, and with the repeals consequent on the enactment of this piece of legislation. I commend the order to the house for approval.

Moved, That the draft order laid before the House on 3rd February be approved.—(Lord Elton.)

Lord Boston of Faversham

My Lords, I should like to thank the noble Lord, Lord Elton, for explaining the purposes of the order. I hesitate to intervene in a Northern Ireland matter but I am comforted by the thought that my noble friend Lord Blease would be happy for me to join in commending the order to your Lordships. I have not had the pleasure of visiting the two institutions which the noble Lord, Lord Elton, described at the beginning of his remarks. They are quite clearly admirable institutions and among those who speak highly of them is my noble friend Lord Donaldson of Kingsbridge who, as your Lordships will know, until quite recently had responsibilities as Minister for the Arts. So it is with pleasure that I join in supporting this order.

Lord Hampton

My Lords, I too should like to thank the noble Lord, Lord Elton, for explaining so fully the statement, and I too should like to commend the order. I wonder whether I might ask the Minister this: Am I right in believing that the museums in Northern Ireland will be receiving no additional funds from Government sources but at the same time no less? Am I right that any increase in funds is to be left opti- mistically in the present economic climate to local resources?

Lord Elton

My Lords, I should like to thank both noble Lords who have spoken for their kind welcome to this order. I am very glad to see the noble Lord, Lord Boston of Faversham, taking an interest in our affairs. He has candidly revealed that he has visited neither of our institutions. I warmly recommend him to do so as soon as possible. It is something that I do on a number of occasions. I find it always gratifying, and I am much impressed by what I find going on there. It is also a pleasure to see the noble Lord, Lord Donaldson of Kingsbridge, in his place for this order. I know with what a kindly and effective interest he pursued the fates of the museums.

The noble Lord, Lord Hampton, was also kind enough to welcome the order and asked me, if I understood him aright, whether I was able to predict the level of support which museums might expect to receive from central Government funds. It is not in my power to predict what may be contained in the Budget which will be announced next month, nor indeed to order the priorities which my right honourable friend the Secretary of State may accord to different projects in the years that lie ahead. I can however assure him that although, like all other institutions without exception in the Province, the museums have had to bear their share of the hardships forced upon us by economic recession and rising fuel prices which has struck us worldwide, none the less, both my right honourable friend and I are impressed by the work being done in the museums and will certainly do what we can to protect it in the future.

On Question, Motion agreed to.