Charles Dickens: Bicentenary

Debate between Baroness Rawlings and Lord Alton of Liverpool

Thursday 9th February 2012 Lords Chamber

[Lord Harrison]

My Lords—

[Lord Alton of Liverpool]

My Lords, does the Minister recall that I raised the issue with her a few weeks ago that, in this Diamond Jubilee year, it would be appropriate for a gift of a Dickens novel to be given to children throughout the country? When I subsequently wrote to her and had a brief conversation, she said that she would look at ways of trying to promote private sponsorship of such a project. Has she been able to make any progress in that regard?

[Baroness Rawlings]

I have not actually heard back recently from DCMS on that very interesting suggestion, but I will write to the noble Lord on it.

Libraries: Access

Debate between Baroness Rawlings and Lord Alton of Liverpool

Thursday 8th December 2011 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Rawlings]

The noble Lord, Lord Borrie, brings up the cuts once again. Libraries are the domain of the local authority. If the Secretary of State sees that there is undue reason for closing a public library, he can intervene. There is a form of testing that he looks at—it is not a fit-and-proper test, but he has the opportunity to investigate.

[Lord Alton of Liverpool]

My Lords, as we come to commemorate next year the important Jubilee of Her Majesty the Queen, would it not be a suitable initiative for the Government, perhaps in partnership with private sponsors, also to commemorate next year’s bicentenary of Charles Dickens and this year’s 400th anniversary of the publication of the King James Bible by making presentations of those books to children in our secondary schools? That would be a way not only of marking the Jubilee year but of increasing the holding of books by children in our country today.

[Baroness Rawlings]

The noble Lord, Lord Alton, raises a very interesting question. It would be an extremely good idea, come the Jubilee, to have partnerships like that. The Government announced just this week that the possibility of extra philanthropic funding for schemes such as partnerships for the Jubilee is being looked into. Speaking of the Jubilee, I commend Her Royal Highness the Duchess of Cornwall for all the work that she does in this area to encourage young children to read.