Museums and Galleries (Hansard, 18 April 1988)

§ Mr. Fisher

To ask the Minister for the Arts (1) how many staff at(a) the Tate Gallery, (b) the British museum (c) the Victoria and Albert museum work (i) full-time and (ii) part-time on inventory records;

(2) what is his estimate as to how many additional staff would be needed at (a) the British museum and (b) the Victoria and Albert museum to bring inventories up to date within three years;

(3) what has been (i) the purchase grant and (ii) the conservation grant at (a) the Tate Gallery, (b) the British museum and (c) the Victoria and Albert museum in each of the last 10 years;

(4) what have been the budgets for (i) storage, (ii) security, (iii) research and scholarship, (iv) administration, (v) advertising and manufacturing, (vi) exhibition and (vii) training at (a) the Tate gallery, (b) the British museum and (c) the Victoria and Albert museum in each of the last 10 years;

(5) by how many (a) the Tate gallery, (b) the British museum and (c) the Victoria and Albert museum will need to increase their staffing on assuming responsibility for maintenance from the Property Services Agency in April;

(6) what additional information on the condition of (a) the Tate gallery, (b) the British museum and (c) the Victoria and Albert museum has been produced by the Property Services Agency in the process of preparing to transfer responsibility for maintenance of these museums to their trustees;

(7) what are the aspects of the Property Services Agency's biennial visual survey of (a) the Tate gallery, (b) the British museum and (c) the Victoria and Albert museum; and whether he will publish the last three Property Services Agency biennial surveys of its museums;

(8) what he estimates is the cost of backlog maintenance and restoration of the fabric of the building at (a) the British museum and (b) the Victoria and Albert museum;

(9) to what posts the additional maintenance staff will be appointed, and at what cost, at (a) the Tate gallery, (b) the British museum and (c) the Victoria and Albert museum;

329W

(10) what estimate has been made as to how many conservation staff would be needed to be employed in order to clear the conservation backlog within 10 years at (a) the Tate gallery, (b) the British museum and (c) the Victoria and Albert museum;

(11) what is the conservation backlog at (a) the Tate gallery, (b) the British museum and (c) the Victoria and Albert museum;

(12) how many individual students have used the research facilities at (a) the Tate gallery, (b) the British museum and (c) the Victoria and Albert museum in each of the last five years;

(13) how many applications for access by students and others for scholarship and research have been received by (a) the Tate gallery, (b) the British museum and (c) the Victoria and Albert museum in each of the last five years;

(14) what was the cost of storage space in (a) 1977 and (b) 1987 at (i) the Tate gallery, (ii) the British museum and (iii) the Victoria and Albert museum;

(15) when the existing security systems at (a) the Tate gallery, (b) the British museum and (c) the Victoria and Albert museum were (i) installed and (ii) uprated;

(16) what action has been taken to rationalise security procedures at the British museum; and when;

(17) how many security staff were employed at (a) the Tate gallery, (b) the British museum and (c) the Victoria and Albert museum in (i) 1977 and (ii) 1987;

(18) whether he will list all objects stolen or otherwise missing and unaccounted for from (a) the Tate gallery, (b) the British museum and (c) the Victoria and Albert museum in each of the last 10 years.