§ Mr. Fauldsasked the Minister for the Arts whether he will publish in the Official Report the attendance figures for 1985 reported by the national museums and galleries in England, broken down to the individual institutions but comprising their outstations, with figures in each case of the percentage increase or decrease on the attendance figures for 1984.
§ Mr. LuceFor the nine national museums and galleries for which I am responsible, the information requested is as follows:
Estimated attendance in 1985 Percentage change from 1984 British Museum 4,142,092 +19.5 Imperial War Museum 1,291,435 -5.4 National Gallery 3,156,725 +7.5 National Maritime Museum 600,000 * National Portrait Gallery 516,148 -11.2 Science Museum 4,607,852 +2.2 Tate Gallery 996,565 -21.3 Victoria and Albert Museum 2,067,202 -0.6 Wallace Collection 178,770 +0.7 * No quantifiable change.
The figure quoted for the national maritime museum, which charges for admission, is an approximate estimate based partly on the number of admission tickets sold, some of which cover more than one entrant or visit. Other museums record visitors by a variety of methods, and in most cases the figures are regarded as being accurate to within about 5 per cent. only. This limits the interpretation of apparent annual changes in attendance, which may also be affected by other factors at individual museums and galleries.