Regional Museums
Debate between Earl of Courtown and Baroness Afshar(8 years, 7 months ago)
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The Earl of Courtown
My Lords, the small museums provide a marvellous service to all those concerned. I am unaware of the exact details of any works of art in lieu of tax, so I shall write to the noble Lord on that issue.
The Earl of Courtown
My Lords, perhaps I should point out to my noble friend that the national museums do in fact span the country. The Royal Armouries, the Tate, the Natural History Museum and the Science Museum all have regional sites outside London. The national collections have partnerships with other organisations, focusing not only on loans but on sharing skills, expertise, education and learning, and working with communities.
Baroness Afshar
My Lords, what provisions are being made for York, where not only has its museums been closed but many of the sites were flooded, and the council simply does not have the resources to deal with both problems?
The Earl of Courtown
My Lords, I think that the noble Baroness was referring to the Jorvik Viking Centre in York. As we all know, it suffered a great deal of flooding damage earlier this year, or last year, and is now looking to raise a total of £2 million—£500,000 from general public fund-raising ventures and the remainder from private trusts, foundations and corporate sponsorship. I should point out to the noble Baroness and the House that York Minster, York Museums Trust and York Theatre Royal are all helping with items from the museum to be on show.
Creative Industries
Debate between Earl of Courtown and Baroness Afshar
The Earl of Courtown (Con)
My Lords, the latest statistics, released in January, show the creative industries going from strength to strength, with growth of almost 9% in 2014, nearly double that for the UK economy as a whole. The core sector was worth more than £84 billion in 2014—just over 5% of the UK economy. The Government support the UK creative industries in a number of ways, through direct and indirect funding, infrastructure provision, facilitation, advocacy and the production of statistics.
Baroness Afshar (CB)
I am grateful to the Minister for that Answer and for the information about how active the industry is and how it is one of the best industries in the country. I declare an interest: my daughter is a music teacher. However, given the role that the industry plays, there is a fear that if music—which is one of the bases of the creative industry—and art are not part of the compulsory bacc, many schools would choose not to teach them and, therefore, the industry would not be able to continue to play the part it has played in the economy. Would the Government consider including both music and creative art in the EBacc?
The Earl of Courtown
My Lords, the noble Baroness draws attention to music in education, in particular in the EBacc. Young people should have the opportunity to study art subjects alongside the strong academic core curriculum, including the EBacc. Music is a compulsory subject within the national curriculum for five to 14 year-olds. All pupils in maintained schools will therefore study music for a minimum of nine years.
Flooding: Tourist Attractions
Debate between Earl of Courtown and Baroness Afshar
The Earl of Courtown
My Lords, the noble Lord is quite right. It is not just Cumbria: Yorkshire, Lancashire and the other counties in that whole area are all suffering from flood damage. I can confirm that Ministers are in discussions with the insurance industry at the moment.
Baroness Afshar (CB)
My Lords, I would like to put on record the extraordinary generosity during this dilemma of the citizens of York, who, from day one, provided for everyone as much as they could. York is a point that pulls tourists northwards, away from London’s centre of tourism. Is it not essential at this point not only to applaud and recognise the generosity of the people of York, but to allocate a specific sum to renovate the museum, which cannot be accessed at the moment, in order to extend tourism?
The Earl of Courtown
My Lords, the noble Baroness is quite right that the Jorvik Viking Centre is of great importance in York. One of the most important things we have been looking at in the five-point plan for tourism is transport, in order to spread tourism away from the centre to the other parts of the United Kingdom. The Rail Safety and Standards Board is running a £1 million competition to boost ideas to get more tourists on to the railways and out and about in the United Kingdom.
President Sisi: Visit
Debate between Earl of Courtown and Baroness Afshar
The Earl of Courtown
My noble friend is quite right. Egypt is on the front line in the war against ISIL and other forms of extremism. It is the biggest country in the Arab world and the biggest destination there for British tourists, with almost 1 million visitors per year. It is also hosting people who have been displaced by crises in neighbouring countries.
Baroness Afshar (CB)
My Lords, are the Government aware that in the name of Islam the Government of Egypt are abusing the rights of women, hence the attraction of other resisting groups who are promising to respect Islam, although we do not know that they will do it? What the Government of Egypt are doing is unIslamic. They are not granting women their rights. What will this Government do at least to demand that the Government of Egypt act according to what they state their aims are?
The Earl of Courtown
My Lords, the noble Baroness mentioned women’s rights. We welcome the provisions for the protection of women’s rights under the new constitution adopted in January 2014 and a law passed in June 2014 criminalising sexual harassment for the first time. The new law has led to several convictions. We have also deployed a regional gender adviser to our embassy in Cairo to strengthen the quality of our programmes in Egypt and across the region by focusing on gender equality.