HC Deb 11 July 1966 vol 731 c154W
Miss Harvie Anderson

asked the Secretary of State for Education and Science when he will reconsider the decision not to include the building of the new National Portrait Gallery in the Government's Capital Development Plan for museums and galleries announced in 1964.

Miss Jennie Lee

The Plan to which the hon. Member refers was never intended to be inflexible. The aim has always been to keep it under review in the light of the progress of individual schemes. The possibility that the new building for the National Portrait Gallery might be started during the period covered by the Plan was envisaged from the outset, although this was not one of the projects actually named in the Plan. That is still the position and I am not yet able to say anything further.