§ 23. Mr. MacCormickasked the Secretary of State for Education and Science what is the total of Government expenditure over the last 10 years in preventing important works of art from leaving the United Kingdom.
§ Mr. Hugh JenkinsAll purchases of works of art by the public collections safeguard the objects from export. It is impossible to guess whether had those purchases not been made, the works would have been acquired by those who might have wished to export them either immediately or later. It is not, therefore, possible to say how much it has cost the Government to prevent works from leaving the United Kingdom, and the only indication I can give to the hon. Member is the total of purchase grants of all kinds provided by the Exchequer for museums and galleries in the United Kingdom which amounted to £16,698,690 from 1965–66 to 1974–75.
Total of purchase grants provided by the Exchequer for museums and galleries in the United Kingdom Year £ 1965–6 824,195 1966–7 969,218 1967–8 949,794 1968–9 935,259 1969–70 1,466,691 1970–1 2,090,116 1971–2 2,088,581 1972–3 3,072,602 1973–4 2,484,799* 1974–5 1,817,435* Total 16,698,690 Note
* Excludes the grant to the British Library provided separately in these years.