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Art Collections
10. Mr. Andrew Dismore (Hendon): If he will make a statement on progress on the review of national art collections to identify art that may have been looted from victims of Nazi persecution. [110607]
The Minister for the Arts (Mr. Alan Howarth): The national museums directors conference will be holding a news conference tomorrow to make a first report of the results of research into provenance during the period 1933-45. I understand that the findings will be published on the internet.
Mr. Dismore: I welcome my hon. Friend's answer, which shows, with the panel that was announced last week, a clear recognition of the need to make restitution to the victims of the Nazis--a need that was badly neglected by the previous Conservative Government. There is some concern, especially in the Jewish community, as to the need for further consultation over the membership and terms of reference of the panel. Will he tell us what powers the panel will have if there is a dispute between the rightful owner of a looted work of art, who wants it back, and an institution that does not want to give it up?
Mr. Howarth: Of course, I have held consultations and continue to do so. Last year, I offered organisations representing Jewish people, or acting on behalf of Jewish claimants, the opportunity to meet senior officials in my Department. The Holocaust Educational Trust and the European Commission on Looted Art availed themselves of that opportunity; the Board of Deputies of BritishJews did not do so. However, I was pleased to meet representatives of all three organisations before publishing our proposals for the terms of reference of the spoliation advisory panel, which are, of course, consultative.
On the second point made by my hon. Friend, our sole desire in establishing the panel is to make it easier for justice to be done. I am holding consultations on the membership of the panel. It will be chaired by a most distinguished, retired, Lord Justice of Appeal, Sir David Hirst. I propose that it should include not only lawyers, but historians, ethicists, experts on the art market, Jews and gentiles. The panel's paramount purpose will be to achieve a fair and just solution both for the claimant and for the institution. It will have a range of remedies; however if, unfortunately, the remedy that it offers does not recommend itself in a particular case, the claimant will still have the right to go to law.
Dance
11. Mr. Tony McWalter (Hemel Hempstead): What support he has provided to those responsible for the development of dance to ensure that those involved in the training, particularly of children, have appropriate qualifications and expertise. [110608]
The Minister for the Arts (Mr. Alan Howarth): Much dance teacher training is provided by private sector bodies, which run training and provide qualifications which are recognised by the Council for Dance Education and Training as of a high quality and as examples of appropriate practice within the sector. The Qualifications and Curriculum Authority is currently engaged in accrediting qualifications submitted by awarding bodies who wish to have them placed within the national qualifications framework.
Mr. McWalter: I thank my hon. Friend for that answer. Is he aware that, although the Government have found substantial extra funds for arts and sports bodies, an activity such as dance--which is a hybrid of sport and art--may not receive its proper share of resources? Is he also aware that, as a result, more than half the children and people learning dance are taught by people with absolutely no qualifications to support them? Dance is particularly important for young girls as it motivates them and makes them active. Therefore, will my hon. Friend consider ways in which the dance authorities can offer their expertise to those teachers who are currently operating without qualifications?
Mr. Howarth: My hon. Friend will be mindful that Emma Goldman once said to Lenin, "If I can't dance, I do not want to be part of your revolution." That is something that new Labour should not forget.
Of all human activities, dance is the one that I would most regret seeing heavily regulated by the state. None the less, my hon. Friend makes an important point, which is that teachers of dance have the health, safety and physical well-being of dancers in their hands. It is important that we should be able to be confident that those teachers are properly trained and qualified.
Mr. Peter Viggers (Gosport):
Does the Minister recall making, through his Department, the announcement in the late summer of last year that grants to dance students would be substantially changed, making it possible for the first time for pupils of minimal means to be able to undertake dance studies? Does he realise how high the hopes of young dance students were raised only for those hopes to be dashed when they discovered that the grant system had become far more niggardly? It caused many of them to wonder whether they would be able to continue with their studies. Will he apologise to those dance students who, until that system of niggardly grants was improved and rectified, thought that they would have to give up their dance studies?
Mr. Howarth:
No, I will not apologise. I am rather proud of what we have been able to do. It was something
Green Spaces Initiative
12. Ms Hazel Blears (Salford): In what ways he expects children to benefit from the green spaces initiative funded by the new opportunities fund. [110609]
The Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport (Mr. Chris Smith): The new opportunities fund launched the green spaces and sustainable communities initiative in January, having consulted extensively on the scope of the programme in the autumn of last year. It is envisaged that projects involving opportunities for children's play, organised and informal sport, playing fields, access to the countryside and creating safer routes to school will be eligible, among others. Such projects will greatly benefit the health, happiness, safety and social well-being of children, particularly in areas of multiple deprivation.
Ms Blears: I thank my right hon. Friend for that reply. Many inner-city areas are concrete jungles; there are 32 tower blocks in my constituency. The previous Tory Government sold off 5,000 playing fields, leaving many of our schools with no green space on which children can play. Will my right hon. Friend confirm that money from the green spaces initiative will be targeted specifically at cities, such as mine, where children need green spaces to play?
Mr. Smith: Yes, indeed. My hon. Friend rightly identifies the importance--especially, but not exclusively, in inner-city areas--of the creation of green spaces where children can play and where an oasis of greenery in the midst of concrete can be created. The new opportunities fund will seek to apply its funds primarily to areas of deprivation and it will look for good applications. I hope that my hon. Friend will encourage her constituents to come forward with precisely such applications.
Rugby League World Cup
13. Mr. Lindsay Hoyle (Chorley): What support and assistance he (a) has given and (b) intends to give, to the Rugby Football League with regard to promoting the forthcoming rugby league world cup in the UK. [110610]
The Minister for Sport (Kate Hoey): I am delighted that the rugby league world cup is being hosted in the UK this year, with the final being played at Old Trafford in November. As with all major events being staged in this country, we are ready to offer promotional and diplomatic support to assist the organisers in the delivery of a successful event, and I am pleased that UK Sport has agreed support in principle of £350,000 towards the cost of staging the rugby league world cup.
Mr. Hoyle: I thank my hon. Friend for that answer, but will she also ensure that discrimination against rugby
league will be ended and that it will be included as one of the nine specialist sports to receive special funding from Sport England?
Kate Hoey: As my hon. Friend will know, I am meeting the all-party rugby league group this week to discuss precisely that issue. That decision would be historical, and I should like Sport England to look at the matter again.
CHURCH COMMISSIONERS
The hon. Member for Middlesbrough, representing the Church Commissioners, was asked--
Churches (Theft)
29. Mr. Gordon Prentice (Pendle): What arrangements are in place for insurance of churches in remote locations against theft of their fabric. [110626]
Mr. Stuart Bell (Second Church Estates Commissioner, representing the Church Commissioners): It is the responsibility of the individual church, that is to say its parochial church council, to arrange and finance its own insurance of the church building and its contents.
Guidance is available to parochial church councils and others from the Council for the Care of Churches of the Church of England and from individual insurers.
Mr. Prentice:
That is a very disappointing reply. We could equalise premiums across the country so that parishes would not pay more if their churches were vulnerable to theft and vandalism. People in my constituency are absolutely fed up to the back teeth of historic artefacts being stripped from churches. Not long ago, the entire stone tiling from the mediaeval parish church at Gill was stripped; it disappeared down the M1 and is probably in a garden in Islington as I speak. I want my hon. Friend to speak to the Home Secretary about that and perhaps to designate police officers responsible for stolen stones, as Skipton does.
Mr. Bell:
My hon. Friend the Member for Islington, North (Mr. Corbyn) has the next question, and he may be better able to answer questions about the whereabouts of artefacts. I am saddened to tell the House that the Ecclesiastical Insurance Group confirmed that in 1998 it paid more than 4,000 claims as a result of attacks against churches, including theft, vandalism and arson. Ten churches are attacked every day, and one in four can expect to be the victim of crime every year. As insurers, the group views that high level of crime as completely unacceptable--and on that point, I agree entirely with my hon. Friend--and it works with the Church, wherever possible, to help to combat the rising number of attacks on its people and property.
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