Covid-19: Museums, Galleries and Historic Buildings

Lord Green of Hurstpierpoint Excerpts

Thursday 21st May 2020 Lords Chamber

[Lord Green of Hurstpierpoint (Non-Afl)]

My Lords, I declare an interest as chair of the Natural History Museum. I want to stress the vital importance of our natural history and botanical collections and our zoological expertise to the national and global ability to confront the most important common challenges of our age. There are more than 130 million natural history specimens in the UK. The Natural History Museum alone houses more than 80 million, the broadest and deepest collection in world, and a further 11 museums around the country have collections of more than 1 million specimens each. In addition, there are scientifically valuable collections in dozens of other accredited bodies in every region of the country. Combined with the living collections in botanical and zoological gardens, these collections are a vital component of the UK science infrastructure. They provide the means by which we can understand and address climate change, biodiversity loss, food security and, indeed, zoonotic diseases such as Covid-19, so it has never been more important than it is now to ensure that we nurture, support and make fullest use of this extraordinary database. These collections are about our future, not just the past.