National Museums and Galleries

Lord Parkinson of Whitley Bay Excerpts

Monday 27th April 2026 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Twycross (Lab)]

I am not sure that there is fear baked into their concerns, but I recognise that there are a large number of museums out there that do charge. Where museums charge, they tend to be quite modestly priced. The issues that we are exploring are broader than that. We will look at the whole range of things and could look at whether there is an issue around competition with other institutions.

[Lord Parkinson of Whitley Bay (Con)]

My Lords, I am sorry to hear that this is a policy under active consideration in Whitehall. As the Minister said, it is a complex matter. As the Government look at this, will she ensure that they look at all the implications and practicalities, such as how we actually identify the nationality of people in a nation without ID cards and the impact on British people of ethnic minority backgrounds and, of course, on the many generous donors and benefactors who have given money, grants and gifts to museums and galleries down the ages on the understanding that they would remain free for everybody, as was the policy that the last Labour Government brought in?

[Baroness Twycross (Lab)]

Absolutely: we will be looking at all those things. Indeed, when I spoke to the national museums directly, these were some of the issues that came up.