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

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, whether her Department has made an assessment of the potential merits of the repatriation of the Benin Bronzes to Nigeria.

Museums and galleries in the UK operate independently of the government. Decisions relating to their collections are a matter for the trustees of each museum.

National museums are prevented by law from “deaccessioning” objects in their collections unless, broadly, they are duplicates or unfit for retention. The two exceptions to this are when the objects are human remains that are less than 1000 years old, and objects that were spoliated during the Nazi-era.