§ Mr. MaudeTo ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport if he will make a statement on the charging policy at each of the national museums and galleries. [19516]
§ Mr. FisherIt is for the Trustees of each museum to decide what measures should be adopted to promote access to their museum within available resources. For some that will be free admission; others will choose to promote access in other ways. We wish institutions to do all they can to balance the books while maximising access.
A review of access to the national museums and galleries began in May. This has examined the effect of charges and identified other barriers to access. Our policy was outlined in an interim statement made by my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State on 8 December. A consultation paper was also published inviting views on a code of good practice on access.
Further consideration will be given to all aspects of access policy for museums and galleries in the context of the Departmental Spending Review. The review is taking a fundamental look at spending priorities across the whole range of the Department's responsibilities and will be completed next summer.
§ Mr. MaudeTo ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what methods are used to calculate visitor numbers at free admission museums; and if his Department requires these figures to be independently audited before awarding grant-in-aid. [19510]
§ Mr. FisherMethods of counting visitors vary from institution to institution. Manual counting by security staff or warders at the entrance is used by the British Museum, the National Portrait Gallery, the Tate Gallery, the National Gallery, the Wallace Collection and the Geffrye Museum. At Sir John Soane's Museum all visitors must sign the visitors book before admission. Electronic methods of counting are being trialled at some free museums.
The manual counting methods in use are prone to error and are likely to over-estimate the true number of visitors.
It is not a requirement of grant-in-aid that the counts should be independently audited.
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§ Mr. MaudeTo ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport if he will list the level of grant-in-aid which will be supplied in the next financial year to each national museum and gallery funded directly by his Department using 1996–97 as the base year. [19511]
§ Mr. FisherThe information is given in the following table.
Grant-in-aid allocation Institution 1996–97£ 1998–99 £ British Museum 33,196,000 32,921,000 Imperial War Museum 10,678,000 10,573,000 National Gallery 18,726,000 17,889,000 National Maritime Museum 10,545,000 10,184,000 National Museums and Galleries on Merseyside 13,123,000 12,696,000 National Portrait Gallery 4,915,000 4,697,000 Natural History Museum 27,449,000 26,960,000 Science Museum 20,633,000 20,281,000 Tate Gallery 18,777,000 18,218,000 Victoria and Albert Museum 30,612,000 29,127,000 Wallace Collection 1,900,000 1,816,000