House of Lords: Domestic Committees

Baroness Maddock Excerpts

Monday 9th May 2016 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Maddock (LD)]

My Lords, I thank the Leader of the House for instigating this review and for her exposition at the beginning of the debate. I also thank the noble Baroness, Lady Shephard of Northwold, for her chairmanship of the group. Having known her in another place a long time ago and through having served with her on the Committee on Standards in Public Life, I am not surprised by the accolades she has received this afternoon.

I must declare an interest as the chairman of the Works of Art Committee, a post I have held for almost three years. I should like to take the opportunity to thank all those who have supported me in this job, which I have greatly enjoyed. I am mostly a political operator, so this is something quite different. I thank in particular the curator, Malcolm Hay, and his staff, the Clerk of the Parliaments and the two clerks I have had to the committee, and I say how much I miss the help I had from Liz Hallam Smith, who was the director of information services in the Library. I greatly miss her wealth of experience.

The report refers to the Works of Art Committee in two places: first, in its terms of reference on page four—which are rather brief, like most of the terms of reference to committees—and then in a short series of recommendations set out on pages 22 and 23, which, as we have heard, seek to change slightly the nature of the committee, making it an advisory committee reporting to the Lord Speaker. What I hope to do in my remarks is, first, to expand on what the committee does. This is a rare opportunity to explain to Members of the House quite what goes on in the Works of Art Committee. I also want to make some comments on the recommendations which I hope will be helpful to those trying to take them forward. I hope it will lead to an understanding of how we work.

As stated in the report, we administer the House of Lords Works of Art Collection Fund. We draw down modest sums of money each year, and I should say that during austerity they have been even more modest than they were in the past. We use the funds for two purposes: to take care of the wonderful collection of works of art in the House and to add to it. There are two ways in which we do this. Sometimes we commission works of art. Noble Lords will know that in recent years we have commissioned portraits of the Speakers of the House, and before that the Lord Chancellors. Last year, we also unveiled a portrait of the noble Lord, Lord Carrington, which we had commissioned.

We also acquire works of art to fill what we see as gaps in our historical collections. Sometimes the curator will find something that is up for auction. If we think it is something that would add to the collection, we give him the ability to bid up to a certain amount. We are also offered the chance to acquire works by people outside the House, sometimes from art dealers or organisations, and occasionally organisations will donate works to us. We are also offered works by Members of the House and their families. But in judging whether to purchase or to accept new works of art for the collection, the committee is always guided by detailed, well-thought-through policies. An explanation of our recent acquisitions may help with this.

The portrait of the noble Lord, Lord Carrington, was chosen because of the history of his work in government over a great many years. It was agreed by the committee and the portrait, which now hangs in the Members’ Dining Room, has received all sorts of accolades. It is indeed a very splendid portrait. Most recently we have commissioned a portrait of the Lord Speaker which we hope to unveil later in the year, and I will say a little more about that later on. Sometimes Members of the House come to us with ideas. This year the noble and gallant Lord, Lord Vincent, came to us with an idea. He thought it would be rather nice if we could have printed on vellum the prayer that is said every day in the Lords and the Commons, and to have it hanging here; indeed, he volunteered to pay for it. We hope to unveil the prayer in June.

We have also been offered recently a portrait of Lord Mansfield for rather more money than we normally spend. Lord Mansfield had been a Speaker of the House of Lords, so we decided that, given the history of all that he had done in his political career, there was a gap in our collection and we would like to purchase the portrait. However, there was not enough money in our normal fund. We attempted to raise money for it, and I am grateful to Members of the House who helped me in that. We did not get quite enough money, but by spreading it over two years of our budget and adding the money we have managed to raise, we hope to be able to purchase it.

Care and conservation are ongoing. At the moment, noble Lords will be aware of the conservation of the Maclise paintings of Waterloo and Trafalgar on the wall in the Royal Gallery. We have been helped again to work out how to do it—we are very prudent in my committee, I must say—by PhD students from Germany. If people are particularly interested in that, I can let them know exactly what is happening. There is further information in the minutes of our committee.

The Royal Gallery is part of the Royal Apartments, which include this Chamber, the Royal Gallery and the Robing Room, and we have to pay particular attention to how we conserve them. We work closely with the House of Commons Works of Art Committee because we have a shared responsibility for what happens in Westminster Hall and St Stephen’s Chapel. When I took over chairmanship of the committee, I did not quite realise that until I started attending the meetings of the House of Commons Works of Art Committee. That committee had been working up a wonderful work of art to celebrate women’s suffrage, which was going into St Stephen’s Chapel. None of my committee members had seen this. I thought, “Oh dear, if they don’t like it we will have a problem”, so I immediately arranged for the artist to come to explain her ideas and how the work had evolved. The committee was so impressed that members burst into applause when she had finished and said, “We must give some money towards this”. Mostly, however, it has been paid for by the House of Commons.

The curator, his deputy and his team, who are our expert advisers, work across both committees in the House of Commons and the House of Lords. The lion’s share of their salaries are paid by the Commons and the line management is in the Commons. The Speaker does not attend their meetings but generally agrees to the programme. I would ask how we think the Lord Speaker would work with our committee if we were to follow this. Occasionally it could cause problems but we need to work out carefully how it would happen because the role of the Speaker here is very different from the role of the Speaker in the other place. I am not saying that it cannot happen but we need to think carefully about it.

I understand that a lot of consideration is being given to how members are selected to serve on committees. I know that there have been discussions about how important expertise is on the Works of Art Committee. At present I have a very committed committee. Invariably, I have full attendance and members always send their apologies if they cannot make the meeting. We have a mixture of art lovers and experts, and the names put forward by the various party groups have produced an excellent committee. It is important to have a mixture of skills. I do not think everybody needs to be an expert—we have good experts to advise us—but it is always helpful to have people who have some knowledge and are familiar with the art world. I agreed with the noble Lord, Lord Fowler, who is not in his place, when he talked about the role of committee members. I agree that we need to try to make sure that more people know what we are doing in our committees.

Another matter that comes our way, and can be controversial, is the choice of Christmas cards. I keep asking how this ever came to be the role of the Works of Art Committee. I have tried to streamline it a little and to get Members of the House to make suggestions, but in the two years that we did it we had very few. That may be due to it being quite difficult to communicate with everybody when we ask them to give us their opinions. That has come out in today’s debate.

The other area we are sometimes asked about is what happens in the shop and what we sell there. That is interesting because I realise that there is somehow a better connection between the Works of Art Committee, acquisitions, celebrations and the House of Commons shop than there is here in the House of Lords. We do not run the shop—it is run by the refreshment department—but it is something we could look at.

Almost daily, visitors come here to admire the Palace of Westminster and to appreciate the nation’s history, much of which is illustrated by the works of art contained in the building. We are shortly to make important decisions about how we deal comprehensively with restoration and renewal. The Works of Art Committees in both Houses will surely play an important role in ensuring that the unique collections we have are properly safeguarded. It is therefore important that whatever changes we make to the committee structure do not detract from the important work that the committee presently undertakes and what it will have to undertake in the future. I hope my intervention will help to ensure that, as reforms are rolled out, we put in place arrangements that will work to this end. I look forward to hearing more and to helping with the rollout.