Public Libraries

Lord Dubs Excerpts

Thursday 10th January 2013 Lords Chamber

[Viscount Younger of Leckie]

First, I thank the noble Lord for his kind words. I am fast learning how to multi-task, as I cover both BIS and the DCMS, but only for the next two days.

Returning to the reality of the question, I would like to reassure the noble Lord that the Government are doing much to support and develop libraries. They have taken a number of actions over recent months, including transferring responsibility for library development to Arts Council England, giving libraries access to significant funding opportunities. In addition, Arts Council England has allocated £6 million of its grants from the arts National Lottery funding. The figures presented by the noble Lord could be disputed and we will need to come back on that, but I stick by the figures that I have given in terms of library closures.

[Lord Dubs]

My Lords, will the Minister comment on a quote attributed to Winston Churchill in the middle of the war? Churchill was told that there was a plan to close libraries to raise money for the war effort. He said, “No you won’t. What the hell are we fighting for?”.

[Viscount Younger of Leckie]

I am not able to give a particular comment on that, except to say that I reiterate that the Government are very much behind the development of libraries. It is extremely important to ensure that we take note of technological change. There is changing demand for library services and it is important to bear that in mind.