Question

To ask the hon. Member for Broxbourne, representing the House of Commons Commission, what estimate the Commission has made of the number of ivory items owned by or collated in the Houses of Parliament.

In total, there are 21 documented items made of ivory or containing ivory that are owned by the Houses of Parliament.

There are 18 accessioned objects documented within the Parliamentary Heritage Collections. Of these 12 are small objects from the Parliamentary Art Collection made between the 17th and 19th centuries. The remaining six are items of 19th century historic furniture or fabric which contain small amounts of ivory decoration.

There are two accessioned items documented in the Parliamentary Archives which contain ivory. These are a Book of Common Prayer containing decorative ivory crosses and a set of ink stamps with ivory handles. There are no accessioned items documented in either the House of Lords Library or House of Commons Library made of, or containing, ivory.

A non-accessioned First World War book of remembrance in the House of Lords includes an ivory Tudor rose in the binding. There may be other non-accessioned items containing ivory in the Houses that have not yet been identified.