Charitable and Voluntary Sector

Lord Randall of Uxbridge Excerpts

Thursday 30th April 2020 Lords Chamber

[Lord Randall of Uxbridge (Con)]

I congratulate the noble Lord, Lord Addington, on obtaining this important debate. I draw the House’s attention to my entry in the Register of Members’ Interests in relation to my role as a trustee for various charities.

We have already heard, and will hear a lot more, about the very real hardships experienced by the whole range of charities. However, in the short time allotted for my contribution, I want to highlight the plight of one charity—perhaps one that does not immediately come to mind. I refer to the Zoological Society of London.

ZSL encompasses two zoos, science teaching and research, as well as being a national and global conservation NGO. Its turnover is too high for the coronavirus loan scheme or for the one aimed at large companies—the corporate financing facility. ZSL must keep its animals cared for, which means that zookeepers, site staff and animal health teams keep working. Therefore, the vast majority of the staff are ineligible for the furlough scheme, which requires staff to do no work at all.

ZSL is a national institution doing outstanding work on managing zoonotic disease such as Covid-19, as well as tackling serious conservation issues such as the illegal wildlife trade, which likely caused Covid to spread to people. All that is underpinned by ZSL’s zoo income, which currently is zero.

There is a real fear that ZSL will not survive if laden with debt. When the zoos are running with a full complement of visitors, the surplus enables the conservation and science to happen. Sadly, grants and philanthropy do not cover the costs of conservation and science. In the current environment, the zoos are shut, producing no income. They run at a loss during the winter and generate most surplus during the Easter break, and it is unclear when they will reopen. Given that 40% of visitors to London Zoo are foreign, it is extremely uncertain what levels of income ZSL will return to, even following reopening.

Unlike the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew and the Natural History Museum, ZSL is a global impact science and conservation organisation, running its public-facing zoo with no core government support. I urge the Government to give careful thought to what support they can give to preserve this national institution.