APPENDIX 6
Memorandum submitted by the Public and
Commercial Services Union
NATIONAL MUSEUMS—AUTUMN PROGRAMME
1. This submission is on behalf of the Public
and Commercial Services Union (PCS). PCS has more than 280,000
members who are employed in the Civil Service, linked bodies and
the commercial sector. In particular, PCS represents staff employed
in national museums, galleries and English Heritage in grades
ranging from messenger to British Library senior manager.
2. PCS welcomes the inquiry into the impact
and implications of free admission to national museums.
3. We note that there is to be specific
reference to the British Museum and the Natural History Museum.
PCS believes that there is a need for a wider perspective to take
account of difficulties and restrictions elsewhere that have led
to threats of and actual gallery closures and other restrictions,
eg the National Gallery, the Wallace Collection, the Tate and
English Heritage.
4. PCS supports the principle and practice
of free admission to museums and galleries.
5. It is our belief that charging has a
detrimental effect on the numbers of visitors. Whilst recent published
surveys demonstrate that attendances increase where admission
charges have ceased.
6. PCS is concerned, however, that a major
part of recent improved government funding has been used to compensate
for the loss of revenue following the re-introduction of free
admission. No help is provided to those museums that did not charge,
and the scale of the compensation money leaves little to relieve
financial difficulty across the culture sector.
7. The sector has been inadequately funded
for many years. There has been a substantial increase in large
projects have been funded from the Lottery, but this has not resulted
in an increased support for running costs through grant in aid.
In fact grant in aid has stood still in cash terms, a cut in real
terms allowing for inflation.
8. The knock on effects of the inadequate
funding arrangements is plain to see in job losses and the level
of wages paid to staff in the culture sector. In effect already
low paid workers are subsidising the Government's culture agenda.
9. This in turn has adversely affected industrial
relations. Staff feel undervalued, and see their pay levels falling
further behind colleagues in the civil service and the rest of
the public sector. Their traditional loyalty to the service has
been stretched to breaking point, hence the recent unrest in the
British Museum and British Library.
10. PCS applauds the Government's efforts
to raise the profile of the culture sector. However, the Government's
aims cannot be achieved "on the cheap".
11. There is an inescapable need to provide
significant extra funding. This cannot and should not be achieved
through token funding by way of admission charges to museums and
galleries. PCS believes that the public accept that the real answer
lies in proper levels of grant aid, so that the treasures of this
country remain accessible to all citizens.
12. PCS will be happy to provide oral evidence
if required.
9 October 2002
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