Postal Services Bill

Debate between Lord Boswell of Aynho and Lord Young of Norwood Green

Wednesday 6th April 2011 Lords Chamber

[Lord Boswell of Aynho]

My Lords, I am delighted to follow my noble and good friend, Lord Brooke of Sutton Mandeville, whose speeches I always enjoy. The House has enjoyed one this afternoon. We owe an equal debt of gratitude to the noble Lords, Lord Christopher and Lord Clarke, on the opposition Benches, for initiating this debate. I share with them the spirit of these amendments, and a belief in the importance of the subject. I should perhaps make clear to noble Lords that in another capacity and in another place I was involved in the establishment of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Archives, of which in due course I became the founder chairman, and of which I am still an officer. We brought it into being because we thought that archives were a part of our heritage that was unsung, understated and always vulnerable to financial pressures, and that it needed a closer focus. I think that we were right to do that.

The group sits alongside the All-Party Parliamentary Arts and Heritage Group. As my noble friend pointed out, some of us were privileged to attend the British Postal Museum and Archive for an intensely interesting morning. Not only was it intrinsically interesting, but it showed the wider importance of archives, for example by showing the relationships involved in the formulation of new stamp designs and the exchanges before they were approved and came into circulation.

I will add at this point there are always two tests. One is the importance of business archives generally. In the capacity that I mentioned, I attended a meeting in this House at which the Business Archives Council launched a new guide for businesses. It was very well attended and addressed by the Governor of the Bank of England. It showed the importance of business archives. In the wider context of heritage, we are conscious that, for example, Minton and Wedgwood are under severe pressure at the moment, and it is important that we do not slip this catch in the course of the Postal Services Bill.

My second point is more generic. Wherever one transfers an activity or asset, or any combination, to private contractors or undertakers, it is particularly incumbent on us to make sure that our heritage is preserved. As I mentioned to the House, the British Postal Museum and Archive is a major resource. It represents the distillation of many years of postal and official history. I am privileged to know its director and the chair of its organising committee, who is both a neighbour and a personal friend. We should take time—I am sure that the Minister's good will is there—to see that we get this right.

I say to the House—I need not do so at length—that there are complexities in this. Many of them are set out in the amendments that noble Lords have brought forward. I look forward to the Minister's take on this and to hearing about the ways in which she might consider taking this forward. For a start, there is an archive and an associated obligation to what was once a department of state. Like any other archive, it has a relationship with the National Archives; that should be understood. It is a continuing act of state and an obligation that we should maintain.

Then there is the postal museum. By their nature, the assets are somewhat less intensely valued, although they may have a very high intrinsic and visual interest. The assets are not quite the same as those of the archive, and that is why it is called the British Postal Museum and Archive. That leads me to suggest that there may be different solutions in different cases. As I understand the Bill—this is also my first entry into the Committee stage—there is reasonable provision, at least within the clause to which the amendment is attached, for looking at the public record function and seeing that that is satisfied. That of course applies particularly to existing records, which is I think step one of the process. Then there is the question of what happens when people discharge public duties in the future and whether securing the continuing acquisition of relevant archives will be adequately tied down by the Bill.

There is also the question of proper resources. I remember from our visit that the museum is under some pressure with regard to its existing resources, and the noble Lord has already explained the financing. Nothing is easy in the heritage and archive world at the moment. However, we need to see that the whole thing does not fall down because it somehow misses out on financing.

Although not absolutely essential, it would clearly be very beneficial to the public interest to make sure that the postal museum and archive continued to be collocated on one site, with the possibility of their development either there or elsewhere as an asset to the heritage more generally. Therefore, there is both an archive interest and a wider heritage interest.

I know that my noble friend Lady Wilcox has visited the museum and I hope that she was impressed, as we were. I am sure that this is a problem that is capable of solution, and we look forward to her response in leading the way towards it.

[Lord Young of Norwood Green]

My Lords, I suspect that everything that needs to be said has been said already and I do not want to fall into the trap of saying “but not by everyone”. There is a common thread relating to heritage. I think that keeping the Queen’s head on stamps would be a reasonable tribute as we come up to her Diamond Jubilee. An amendment on that matter was the only amendment passed in the other place, and I look forward to hearing a confirmation of that. Other noble Lords have eloquently stressed the importance of the archive. When companies are privatised, that poses a real threat to their records, and I witnessed what happened to British Telecom’s archive and heritage. Therefore, I, too, look forward to the Minister’s response.