Museums and Galleries: Admission Charges for Non-UK Residents

Question

11:08:00

Asked by

To ask His Majesty’s Government what plans they have for introducing admission charges to museums and galleries for non-UK residents.

The introduction of universal free admission to national museums and galleries was a landmark policy of the previous Labour Government which we do not currently have any plans to change. These museums attract huge numbers of national and international visitors, and they support jobs and investment across the retail, hospitality and leisure sectors. We continue to support these museums in their efforts to broaden access to national collections. That is why the DCMS Secretary of State announced a 5% increase to their funding and £120 million for critical estates maintenance in 2025-26.

I thank the Minister for that Answer and warmly welcome the £270 million announced by the Culture Secretary in her Jennie Lee lecture, including £20 million for renewal of museums across the country. I am glad to hear that there are no plans to change the free admissions policy, a landmark policy of the previous Labour Government. I wonder what the Minister can say about the approach to individual museums which, like the Louvre, the Acropolis and the Met, want to pursue the possibility of charging non-UK residents. Would they be allowed to do it? If so, has the DCMS looked at how they would check for the identities of UK citizens? Would they be checked at the door?

I am unclear whether I can respond as to how the Louvre is going to do this in practice. I understand that it has a way of checking eligibility. The decision in respect to the Louvre is clearly a decision for it, as it is for other museums—my apologies if I have misunderstood the question. As I said in my initial Answer, we remain proud of the landmark Labour policy, which means that everyone is able to enter our national museums free of charge.

My Lords, I welcome the Answer given by the Minister, but the question I want to ask concerns the £270 million announced to help the arts most in crisis, including our civic museums. How will that money be allotted and distributed? A test case is surely Cannock Chase’s Museum and Prince of Wales Theatre, which from next year will receive no funding at all from the local district council. Will these institutions and others in similar positions be saved from closure, and how will this be done?

DCMS is committed to working in partnership with councils and local leaders so that residents’ needs are met, but we are also reviewing wider funding structures and addressing challenges across the entire sector. This includes through the review of Arts Council England and the Government’s commitment to restoring stability to local government finances. We really do understand the issues that a number of cultural institutions are facing.

My Lords, does the Minister agree that if you start to exclude people from museums, you start to remove their spending in museums’ cafés and gift shops? Can this be an official part of any review of charging structures for entrance to those institutions?

As I said in my initial Answer, we currently have no plans to charge for entry to national museums, but the noble Lord is right about what happens when people visit those museums, particularly those which would potentially see lower visitor numbers if they were not free to enter. I am not going to do a league table of which ones I think that might be. There has currently been no impact assessment or any sort of feasibility study on this, because we do not currently have such plans. However, I entirely anticipate that the huge benefit to museums and galleries of visitors’ spend on retail and hospitality when they go to these museums would be considered.

My Lords, I declare an interest as a trustee of the National Portrait Gallery. I welcome the Minister’s caution. To me, the biggest challenge, quite apart from the rights and wrongs of a charge in the first place, would be the logistical challenge of separating visitors as they came into the gallery. How on earth do you decide who has to pay and who does not? I suspect that the cost would outweigh any benefits, so I welcome the cautionary notes. However desirable it might be in theory, I do not think it would be realistic in practice.

I agree with the caution that the noble Lord expressed. We would have to consider a whole range of issues. This is not to say that we are not always looking at how we can bring more funding into the sector, but anything we do needs to be measured against the disbenefit of any action we might propose.

My Lords, this nation’s cathedrals, while not museums, are among the gems of our heritage—treasure troves of memory, architectural masterpieces, and places where prayer has been valid for centuries. The majority do not charge anyone for entry, because they believe in a theological principle that places of prayer should be free for all. Will the Minister confirm that, when cathedrals that do not charge an entry fee apply for grants from public money, His Majesty’s Government will not penalise them?

I am happy to write to the right reverend Prelate with the specifics. It is really welcome that people can go into places of worship for quiet reflection as well as to see the most magnificent structures in the country. I do not have a specific answer to his question, and I will endeavour to write to him.

Across the world, charges are made on audio-described and in-person tours. If we were to think about major museums and art galleries charging visitors from outside this country, we would be able to pull together the plethora of existing different identifiers into a proper identity system.

There are an awful lot of hypotheticals in this debate. I go back to my initial point that this Government do not currently have any plans to charge for entry to museums and galleries that are currently classed as the 50 national museums covered by the Labour Government scheme from 2001.

The UK’s cultural and heritage assets are indeed a massive driver of inbound tourism. As the noble Lord, Lord Addington, pointed out, there is spillover spend not just in the museums but in the accommodation and hospitality that these tourists need. However, we know, and a DCMS Select Committee report from the other place in 2022 revealed, that a lot of that tourism is focused on London, whereas the entire UK has an enormous amount of cultural heritage that could be shared. What are the Government doing to work with VisitBritain and others to raise awareness of and promote venues and opportunities around the UK?

Funding for national museums supports museums and sites across London. The noble Baroness is correct that a large number of these museums are in London, but we do have national museum sites in Liverpool, Manchester, Bradford, York and St Ives. The Government have announced a new £20 million museum renewal fund, in addition to the more than £44 million a year that Arts Council England currently invests in museums. As the noble Baroness is aware, there is an ongoing review of Arts Council England, led by my noble friend Lady Hodge.

My Lords, I welcome the answers that Minister has given, although a few ears will have picked up the word “currently” in her first response. But there are many downsides to reversing the legacy of the noble Lord, Lord Smith of Finsbury. It cuts against the excellent work that the sector has done to widen access, and it erects new barriers. Like other noble Lords, I do not want to see people turned away because they do not have their ID, or people from ethnic minorities challenged about their citizenship. Most of all, it lets politicians, local and national—of all parties—off the hook, when they should value and fund our museums. So might the Minister look at the VAT 33A scheme that her department runs and perhaps give it a more user-friendly name to help promote it? Might she even look at the 1964 Act, which gives local authorities a duty to deliver comprehensive and efficient library services, and widen that to museums as well?

I find myself having to defend giving good news to your Lordships’ House. I will have to write to the noble Lord on the specific VAT rule that he referred to.

The previous Government committed to giving free entry to the national Holocaust memorial next door in Victoria Tower Gardens. Will the Minister commit to the same?

As the noble Lord is aware, this Government are very supportive of the memorial. It is an MHCLG scheme, and I will have to write to the noble Lord following Questions. He will note that this Government are currently taking the legislation through this House.