Museums and Galleries: Collections

Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport written question – answered at on 25 October 2022.

Alert me about debates like this

Photo of Oliver Dowden Oliver Dowden Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, if she will make an assessment of the potential impact of the implementation of sections 15 and 16 of the Charities Act 2022 on the ability of trustees of national museums to seek authorisation from the (a) Charity Commission, (b) Attorney General or (c) in the courts to return collection items if they are motivated by a moral obligation.

Photo of Oliver Dowden Oliver Dowden Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, if she will make an assessment of the potential impact of the Charities Act 2022 on decisions by trustees of national museums to consider the moral claims of restitution claimants.

Photo of Oliver Dowden Oliver Dowden Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, with reference to the Charities Act 2022: implementation plan, published April 2022, what plans do the Government have to bring sections 15 and 16 of the Act into force.

Photo of Stuart Andrew Stuart Andrew Assistant Whip, The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport

The Government is deferring the commencement of sections 15 and 16 of the Charities Act 2022 until we fully understand the implications for National Museums and other charities. When Parliament debated the Charities Bill, enabling national museums to restitute items from their collections based on moral grounds was neither considered, nor agreed on.

Deferring the commencement of these sections of the Act, which were initially planned to be in the first tranche of commencements in autumn 2022, will have no impact on the implementation of the other sections in the Charities Act 2022.

Does this answer the above question?

Yes7 people think so

No3 people think not

Would you like to ask a question like this yourself? Use our Freedom of Information site.

Secretary of State

Secretary of State was originally the title given to the two officials who conducted the Royal Correspondence under Elizabeth I. Now it is the title held by some of the more important Government Ministers, for example the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs.

Attorney general

The Attorney General, assisted by the Solicitor General, is the chief legal adviser to the Government. The Attorney General also has certain public interest functions, for example, in taking action to protect charities.

The Attorney General has overall responsibility for The Treasury Solicitor's Department, superintends the Director of Public Prosecutions as head of the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), the Director of the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) and the Director of Public Prosecutions in Northern Ireland. The Law Officers answer for these Departments in Parliament.

The Attorney General and the Solicitor General also deal with questions of law arising on Government Bills and with issues of legal policy. They are concerned with all major international and domestic litigation involving the Government and questions of European Community and International Law as they may affect Her Majesty's Government.

see also, http://www.lslo.gov.uk/