Museums and Galleries

Lord Faulkner of Worcester Excerpts

Tuesday 24th April 2012 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Rawlings]

My noble friend Lady Hooper makes a very good point and I know of her great involvement in the Liverpool museums. She can rest assured that we have no idea of changing their status, and fully support them as usual.

[Lord Faulkner of Worcester]

My Lords, as a trustee of the Science Museum, I express my appreciation for what the noble Baroness said in her first answer about the role of trustees and the contribution that they make. Her commitment to maintaining free admission is very important and will also be welcome. Does she agree that that is not only an important ingredient in attracting record numbers of visitors—which certainly all the museums in the Science Museum group can now claim—but is a way of levering in private finance to assist with particular projects?

[Baroness Rawlings]

Yes, the noble Lord is absolutely right. Seven out of the top 10 UK visitor and tourist attractions are free, DCMS-sponsored national museums. Since the introduction of free admission in 2001 that he mentioned, visits to museums which previously had charged increased by 128 per cent, rising from 7.2 million to 16.3 million in 2009-10.