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

To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have, if any, to request that the British Museum (1) de-accession 11 Ethiopian altar tablets (tabots) which they have held since 1868, and (2) return them to the Ethiopian Orthodox Church.

The British Museum operates at arm’s length and independently of HM Government. Decisions relating to the care and management of the objects in their collections are therefore a matter for its trustees. This responsibility of the trustees is set out in the museum’s legislation, the British Museum Act 1963, which also describes the limited circumstances under which the museum may deaccession items from its collections.