Question

To ask the right hon. Member for Carshalton and Wallington, representing the House of Commons Commission, for what reasons the House authorities decided not to choose the Southmead Project Wall of Silence exhibition to be displayed in Parliament.

Exhibitions in Parliament’s Upper Waiting Hall offer an opportunity for a variety of topics to be explored in a balanced and non-contentious way. Exhibits must therefore meet the following criteria, that:

“their content should not be of a contentious nature, contain items of advertising, commercial interest or material likely to give offence; nor should they contain material intended to further the aims of any political party or group.”

Since being first approved, concerns have been raised in relation to the ‘Wall of Silence’ exhibition, which was due to be displayed in April 2018 in the Upper Waiting Hall. For this reason the Administration Committee decided, on 29 January 2018, to withdraw support for the exhibition because it did not meet the criterion of being uncontentious.