Clause 30 - Extent
Public Bodies Bill [Lords]
6:15 pm

David Amess (Southend West, Conservative)

I call the Minister to move amendment 45.

Nick Hurd (Parliamentary Secretary (Civil Society), Cabinet Office; Ruislip, Northwood and Pinner, Conservative)

Formally?

David Amess (Southend West, Conservative)

Perhaps the Minister could stand up and read—a technical hitch.

Nick Hurd (Parliamentary Secretary (Civil Society), Cabinet Office; Ruislip, Northwood and Pinner, Conservative)

With great pleasure, Mr Amess.

I beg to move amendment 45, in clause 30, page 17, line 19, at end insert ‘subject as follows’.

David Amess (Southend West, Conservative)

With this it will be convenient to discuss the following: Government amendments 46 and 48

Government new clause 4—V & A, Science Museum, Kew and English Heritage.

Nick Hurd (Parliamentary Secretary (Civil Society), Cabinet Office; Ruislip, Northwood and Pinner, Conservative)

You may be aware, Mr Amess, that there is an inconsistency between the trading powers enjoyed by the institutions covered by the Museums and Galleries Act 1992—an important year in your life—which include the Tate Gallery, the National Portrait Gallery, the National Gallery and the Wallace collection, and those covered by the National Heritage Act 1983, namely the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Science Museum, Kew Royal Botanic Gardens and the Historic Buildings and Monuments Commission for England, known as English Heritage.

All those institutions can create companies to carry out some restricted functions, such as producing publications or providing catering services at their premises, but only those institutions set up by the 1992 Act can enter into shared services contracts and thereby supply services to other organisations. That means that current  legislation prevents the trading arms of the 1983 Act institutions from operating to their full potential. I am sure hon. Members will agree that the situation does not make sense and that there should be parity across the trading powers of our cultural institutions, which will enable the institutions to discharge their functions equally and competitively.

With public funding under such pressure, now is the time to amend the legislation to remove a needless barrier so that the institutions can make changes and increase income. It is not a broad change, but irons out an anomaly in existing legislation in a way that will have real benefits for those institutions and consequently for the public.