It is, of course, up to local authorities to take legal advice when they are deciding on the arrangements for the management and delivery of local libraries, museums and galleries. The precise nature of the contracting-out arrangements might well be a material factor in that. In our view, there is no legal bar to a local authority contracting out museum and gallery provision. However, there is an area of doubt over local libraries.

Irrespective of any management structure, the Government would expect all library services to be evaluated using the public library quality improvement matrix.