Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, with reference to paragraph 2.255 in Autumn Statement 2014, how much the Government plans to spend on considering the benefits and costs of the relocation of the museum collections currently housed at Blythe House; how many full-time equivalent employees will undertake that work; and when he plans to publish the results of that consideration.

The Autumn Statement set out the Government’s intention to consider the benefits and costs of the relocation of the museum collections currently housed at Blythe House. This consideration will follow the process for developing public sector business cases set out in the Green Book Supplementary Guidance. We expect to announce our conclusions next year. As part of this consideration, DCMS procured a market value assessment and advice at a cost of £101,308. It is not possible at this stage to confirm total expenditure on the business case process, but DCMS resource allocated to this work is currently approximately 2.5 FTE.