§ Mr. FisherTo ask the Minister for the Arts what evidence he has that the trustees of(a) the National gallery, (b) the Tate gallery and (c) the National Portrait gallery have encountered difficulties, arising out of their status and constitution, in relation to their buildings or to major building and maintenance contracts.
§ Mr. LuceUnlike the majority of national museums and galleries, the governing trustees of these three galleries do not have a single corporate identity but are groups of individual trustees. This complicates certain contractual arrangements which the galleries may wish to enter into where it would be more usual to refer to the contracting party as a single corporate body. The trustees of all three galleries have requested that they be granted corporate status and I have indicated my intention to introduce legislation to achieve this.