§ Sir Patrick CormackTo ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport if he will list the attendance figures for the financial year ended 31 March reported by the national museums and galleries for which he is responsible, broken down into the individual institutions, including their outstations, with figures in each case of the percentage change on the attendance figures for the preceding year. [8976]
§ Mr. Fisher[holding answer 21 July 1997]: The table lists the number of visits to the 12 national museums and galleries in England for the financial year ended 31 March 1997. The information has been provided by the institutions. The year-on-year changes are affected by a number of factors, including variations to the exhibition programmes of each of the institutions and closures to gallery spaces due to major refurbishments.
9W
Number of visits in 1995–96 (millions) Number of visits in 1996–97 (millions) Percentage increase/decrease over the previous year1 British Museum2 6.10 6.80 +11.5 Imperial War Museum 1.30 1.28 -1.5 Lambeth Road 0.46 0.49 +6.5 HMS Belfast 0.22 0.19 -13.6 Cabinet War Rooms 0.25 0.23 -8 Duxford Airfield 0.37 0.37 0 National Gallery2 4.5 5.0 +11.1 National Maritime Museum3 0.58 0.48 -17.2 National Museums and Galleries on Merseyside4 1.23 1.22 -0.8 Liverpool Museum 0.47 0.40 -14.9 Maritime Museum 0.35 0.36 +2.9 Walker Art Gallery 0.23 0.20 -13 Lady Lever Art Gallery 0.06 0.07 +16.7 Sudley House 0.03 0.03 0 Museum of Liverpool Life 0.09 0.13 +44.5 Conservation Centre — 0.03 — National Portrait Gallery2.5 0.82 0.86 +4.9 Natural History Museum 1.46 1.80 +23.3 South Kensington 1.41 1.75 +24.1 Zoological Museum at Tring 0.05 0.05 0 National Museum of Science and Industry 2.70 2.53 -6.4 Science Museum 1.62 1.47 -9.3 National Museum of Photography and Film at Bradford 0.61 0.62 +1.6 National Railway Museum at York 0.43 0.40 -6.8 Wroughton 0.04 0.04 0 Tate Gallery2 3.06 2.48 -19.0 Millbank 2.38 1.83 -23.1 Liverpool 0.49 0.46 -6.1 St. Ives 0.19 0.19 0 Victoria and Albert Museum6 1.54 1.59 +3.2 South Kensington 1.17 1.25 +6.8 Bethnal Green Museum of Childhood2 0.19 0.17 -10.5 Theatre Museum 0.11 0.12 +9.1 Wellington Museum 0.07 0.05 -28.6 Wallace Collection2 0.16 0.18 +12.5 Royal Armouries7 0.24 0.79 +229.1 Museum of Artillery at Fort Nelson 0.24 0.32 +31.0 New Museum at Leeds — 0.47 — 1 Percentage changes are calculated by reference to the rounded figures, not the underlying data. 2 The number of visits to premises for which admission is not charged is estimated or counted by other means. 3 The figure for the national maritime museum includes the old royal observatory and Queen's house. 4 National museums and galleries on Merseyside's conservation centre opened to the public in October 1996. It introduced admission charges to all its institutions on 8 July 1997. Therefore, figures before these dates are estimates only. 5 Combined attendance at Bodelwyddan castle, operated by an independent charitable trust, Gawthorpe hall, Beningbrough hall and Montacute house, operated by the National Trust, was 815,156 in 1995–96 and 857,085 in 1996–97. These buildings house part of the national portrait gallery's collection. 6 Prior to 1 October 1996, the Victoria and Albert museum at south Kensington operated a policy of suggested donations. 7 It is not possible to identify accurately the number of visits to the royal armouries in HM tower of London. These are contained within the figure issued by the Historic Royal Palaces agency. The figures are not available for 1995–96 for visitors to royal armouries at Leeds.