Regional Museums (Hansard, 27 February 2002)

§ The Minister of State, Department for Culture, Media and Sport (Baroness Blackstone)
My Lords, I announced on 22nd January the timetable for implementing the recommendations of the Regional Museums Task Force as set out in the report Renaissance in the Regions: A new vision for England's museums, which was published last October. Resource, the Council for Museums, Archives and Libraries, has subsequently published draft criteria for the selection of museums to act in partnership as regional hubs. My department is continuing to discuss with Resource the implementation of other aspects of the report.

§ Baroness Lockwood
My Lords, I thank my noble friend for that encouraging response. Does she appreciate how vital it is that there is adequate funding for the successful implementaion of the report? Is she aware that there is a great body of hope and support throughout the country behind a request for additional funding, on which I hope she might draw, where appropriate, in submitting the strongest possible bid for the necessary funding for the implementation of the report? How much flexibility will there be in the regions to allow the current area museums councils or their successors to retain the hands-on assistance that they are giving to the museums, especially the small museums, which may not become a part of the regional hub?

§ Baroness Blackstone
My Lords, I shall deal first with my noble friend's third question. She is absolutely right to draw attention to the excellent work done by the area museums councils. I can reassure her that the very important services they provide, especially to small museums that need this type of help and support, will not be lost when the new arrangements with regional hubs are introduced. Indeed, I believe that some of the services that have been dropped and have disappeared may return when the Resource report recommendations are implemented. Incidentally, over the next two years, Resource will provide more money—funding is being doubled—for those services.
As for my noble friend's first question, if hope and support from across the country can get us the extra money, we shall draw on both the hope and the support that are being provided.

§ Lord Pilkington of Oxenford
My Lords, has the Minister given any thought to the position of university museums, such as the Ashmolean and the Fitzwilliam, which, unlike national museums, are not exempt from VAT? They are great museums. Will she give thought to exempting them from VAT?

§ Baroness Blackstone
My Lords, the university museums are of course great museums with wonderful collections, and the Government very much support the work that universities do in making those collections available. What I cannot do is give the noble Lord any assurance that VAT can be removed in relation to those museums. The Government took a decision to remove the requirement to pay VAT from 1438 the national museums for which they are directly responsible. What I can say, however, is that the university museums will be very much part of the reform programme to be introduced following the Resource report. I am hoping that they will play a part in the development of regional hubs.

§ Lord Redesdale
My Lords, will the Department for Culture, Media and Sport examine the role of conservators? The current shortage of posts, and reduction in the number of posts, is leading to a crisis in the profession. That state of affairs will also have a detrimental impact on many of the artefacts in the museums' care.

§ Baroness Blackstone
My Lords, the role of conservators is enormously important in all of our museums. It is important that that role should be protected and that we recruit enough people to play that role. I hope that when Resource's recommendations are implemented, and if there is further funding particularly for our regional and local museums, that role will be not only protected but enhanced.

§ Baroness David
My Lords, considering the contribution that museums make to the education service at all levels, but particularly at the primary level, can the Minister tell me what co-operation there is between her department and the Department for Education and Skills? Does she think that there will be an extension of that work under the new proposals? Can she say what that might entail?

§ Baroness Blackstone
My Lords, I can tell my noble friend that there is a huge amount of co-operation and collaboration between my department and the DIES on the overall issue of the contribution that museums can make to education. There is no doubt that good museum exhibitions and the good work done by museums in developing educational programmes can enhance the curriculum and motivate children by bringing alive history, geography and many other parts of the curriculum. I have seen some truly excellent work by small local museums that has achieved just that aim. The DfES is putting substantial sums into museum education and it currently has 63 projects going. Just recently, my noble friend Lady Ashton announced a further £1 million for that programme. My own department also has a programme for museum and galleries education. It is therefore a very big part of what our museums are now doing.

§ Baroness Knight of Collingtree
My Lords, is the Minister aware that some local authorities, such as Northampton borough council, are in the process of closing museums that are much loved by the public and much used by the schools? As the Government are on the same wavelength as that particular council, will she perhaps consider using her influence to see that those closures are stopped?

§ Baroness Blackstone
My Lords, although it may be regrettable in some respects, I think that it would be 1439 wrong for the Government to intervene in a local authority's decision to close one or possibly two museums. At the same time, I think that we have to recognise that this country has a very large number of museums, and that closures may occasionally be necessary when museums are failing in order to put more resources into museums that are successful. I shall certainly look into what is happening in Northamptonshire—I was not aware that closures were planned there—and investigate the issues that have led to those closures.

§ Lord Sheldon
My Lords, will my noble friend accept that an important aspect of the issue is the fact that there has been no national strategy for most regional museums? Moreover, local authorities no longer have the finances to subsidise some of those museums as they have had in the past. As a member of the task force. I was most worried by the need to establish these hubs as early as possible, so that the regions are able to support themselves through their own arrangements. The arrangements vary greatly, and work and assistance must be provided as soon as possible.

§ Baroness Blackstone
My Lords, I very much agree with my noble friend's comments on the need to make rapid progress in this respect. It is true that there have been problems in some regions of the country in sustaining the museum sector. However, we have a quite rapid timetable. The plan is that Resource will look at applications for the creation of regional hubs by, I think, the end of April, and announcements will he made sometime in June.

§ Baroness Sharp of Guildford
My Lords, is the Minister aware of some of the difficulties faced by the new hands-on science museums, many of which were set up as millennium projects? They were given capital funding to set themselves up but do not have continuing current funding to enable them to keep going and, as a result, now face some difficulties. Given the need to encourage students to study science at A-level and at university, will the Minister consider talking to her colleague, the noble Baroness, Lady Ashton, about that matter to try to sort it out?

§ Baroness Blackstone
My Lords, I am aware that some science centres are in some financial difficulty in terms of their revenue funding. However, when they were set up it was made clear that they would be provided with lottery funding for their capital needs but that they would then have to survive and operate within their own budgets as regards their revenue. I am certainly happy to discuss that matter with my noble friend Lady Ashton but science centres must try to live within their budgets and raise money where they can. However, I accept that they, like other museums, provide valuable support for the curriculum.

§ Baroness Hooper
My Lords, does the Minister agree that the eight different components of the National Museums and Galleries on Merseyside, albeit they comprise a national museum, play an 1440 important role in regional terms? Does she further agree that Liverpool's bid to be city of culture in 2008 is greatly enhanced by those centres of cultural heritage? Can we therefore count on continued support and funding from the Government?

§ Baroness Blackstone
My Lords, I shall not he trapped by the noble Baroness, Lady Hooper, into supporting Liverpool's bid to be the European city of culture. Some 12 or 13 other cities are also preparing bids to achieve that status. However. when I visited Liverpool recently for the reopening of the Walker Gallery I was extremely impressed by the work carried out by the national museums on Merseyside, in particular with regard to the refurbishment of the Walker Gallery. The Government will continue to fund that national group of museums, as they do many others. Indeed, the Government have been able to increase the funding provided for our national museums by about 12 per cent.