§ Mr. Moneyasked the Secretary of State for Education and Science whether he is taking steps to establish outstations assigned to house a suitable and significantly related group of exhibits from the national collections in selected provincial museums.
294W
§ Mr. Hugh JenkinsAs responsibility for provincial museums rests mainly with local authorities it would not be desirable to establish an outstation from a national collection within a provincial museum. An outstation of the Science Museum, the National Railway Museum, is however being established at York, which will continue to be administered as a national institution. There are various arrangements, for example by loans or by circulating exhibitions, whereby objects in national collections may be shown in provincial museums; these are matters for the trustees or other authorities responsible for the national institutions. In all cases it is for the governing body of the national institution to satisfy itself about the security and care of the objects on loan and their relevance to the rest of the national collection or to the local collection concerned.
§ Mr. Moneyasked the Secretary of State for Education and Science what steps he is taking to introduce a general extension of Government indemnity covering the outlay on insurance charges on the loan of pictures and works of art from national collections to provincial museums and galleries.
§ Mr. Hugh JenkinsIt is existing policy that borrowers from the national collections should themselves carry the additional risk to any object occasioned by the borrowing, whether by insurance or otherwise. I am, however, aware that local museum authorities may find it difficult to cover the additional risks involved in borrowing from national collections. I am, therefore, considering whether any means can be found to help local museums to increase the numbers of objects borrowed from the national institutions, but I am not yet in a position to make a statement.
§ Mr. Moneyasked the Secretary of State for Education and Science whether, in the light of the Ninth Report of the Standing Commission on Museums and Galleries, he is taking steps to encourage loans from national collections to provincial museums and galleries; and whether he will make a statement.
§ Mr. Hugh JenkinsI am continuing to provide, for the museums within the Department, additional resources for travelling exhibitions, which are the main 295W means by which objects in the national collections can be seen in provincial museums. Since 1971 two more large circulating exhibitions and seven additional exhibitions have been provided by the Science Museum, and the V. and A. Museum continues to offer a range of 73 exhibitions under five categories depending on the resources available for display and the arrangements for safeguarding the exhibits.
These programmes are subject to the difficulties and increased risks faced at the present time by the custodians of all objects of great value. Notwithstanding these difficulties, I hope that the museums in the Department, and the trustees of the other national collections, will be able to continue and expand their loans to local museums. In addition, increasing numbers of objects offered to the nation in lieu of death duties are being made available to local collections on the advice of the Standing Commission on Museums and Galleries.