Oral Answers to Questions

Andrew Gwynne Excerpts

Thursday 20th June 2013 Commons Chamber

The Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport was asked—

[Andrew Gwynne (Denton and Reddish) (Lab)]

1. What assessment she has made of the effect of the 2010 spending review on national museums outside London.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport (Mr Edward Vaizey)]

The 2010 spending review protected free admission to the permanent collections of our national museums by limiting cuts in resource funding to 15% in real terms. Resource grant funding for national museums will reduce by only 5% in 2015-16, and they will be given flexibility to manage their budgets independently.

[Andrew Gwynne]

With the Science Museum Group’s projected deficit to increase from the current £2 million to £4 million or even £6 million, depending on the outcome of the spending review, what confidence does the Minister have in the future viability of that group, and in it maintaining the historically important collections at Manchester’s Liverpool Road station site, home of the Museum of Science and Industry?

[Mr Vaizey]

Since the Science Museum Group took over the running of the Manchester Museum of Science and Industry, visitor numbers have risen by 30%, so the answer is there; the group is running MOSI incredibly effectively, and will continue to run its three or four outposts outside London effectively.