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Museums and Galleries

Volume 470: debated on Monday 7 January 2008

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport how many (a) publicly funded and (b) charitably funded (i) art galleries, (ii) museums and (iii) archives (A) closed and (B) opened in each local authority area in England in each of the last five years. (169008)

I refer the hon. Member to the answer given to the hon. Member for Sutton and Cheam (Mr. Burstow) by my hon. Friend the Member for Tottenham (Mr. Lammy) on 26 April 2007, Official Report, column 1256W, in respect of museums and galleries sponsored by the Department. The only addition is the opening of the International Slavery Museum (August 2007), part of National Museums Liverpool.

The following Arts Council England funded galleries have opened in the past five years:

Gallery

Local authority

2003

Permanent Gallery

Brighton and Hove City Council

2004

Apartment

Manchester City Council

2004

The Brindley

Halton District Council

2004

OVADA

Oxford City Council

2004

Study Gallery

Poole Borough Council

2005

Colony Gallery

Birmingham City Council

2005

De La Warr Pavilion

Rother District Council

2005

Mushroom Works

Newcastle City Council

2006

Town Hall Galleries

Ipswich Borough Council

2006

Workplace

Newcastle City Council

2007

Designed and Made

Newcastle City Council

2007

Exchange Gallery

Penwith Borough Council

2007

Picture This

Bristol City Council

2007

Plymouth University Levinsky Building

Plymouth City Council

The following Arts Council England funded galleries have closed in the past five years:

Gallery

Local authority

2003

Basement

Liverpool City Council

2005

Craft Council Gallery

Islington Council

2006

Jump Ship Gallery

Liverpool City Council

2007

Gardner Arts Centre

Brighton and Hove City Council

2007

Norwich Gallery

Norwich City Council

Information on local authority, or charitably funded museums, galleries and archives is not held centrally.

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what resources have been made available to museums in the West Midlands since 1997. (172185)

[holding answer 17 December 2007]: The following table shows spend on museums and galleries in the west midlands through the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council and its predecessor body:

£

1997-98

435,181

1998-99

461,413

1999-2000

461,062

2000-01

540,328

2001-02

664,119

2002-03

926,112

2003-04

1,219,000

2004-05

4,264,535

2005-06

5,840,000

2006-07

6,141,168

2007-08

6,133,456

Total

27,086,374

The following table shows spend on regularly funded galleries in the west midlands by Arts Council England since 2002/03.

£

2002-03

1,386,986

2003-04

1,427,589

2004-05

1,833,982

2005-06

1,819,820

2006-07

2,384,861

2007-08

2,445,594

Total

11,298,832

The following table shows the value of grants given by the DCMS/Wolfson Museums and Galleries Improvement Fund to institutions in the west midlands.

£

2004-05

529,100

2005-06

845,000

2006-07

510,000

2007-08

209,000

Museums are a discretionary local authority service and their core funding is a matter for the 14 single tier and county councils and 24 district councils in the west midlands. The Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy's (CIPFA) Statistical Information Service surveys local authority museums and the findings are available in its ‘Leisure and Recreation Statistics Estimates’ publication that is in the House Library.