APPENDIX 10
Memorandum submitted by the National Museums
and Galleries on Merseyside
INQUIRY INTO FREE ADMISSIONS AND MUSEUM FUNDING
1. HISTORY OF
THE INITIATIVE
For the National Museums and Galleries on Merseyside
(NMGM), this has to be viewed in the context of an imperative
in 1997 to extend[2]
admission charges to all eight venues as the only available means
at that time of balancing our budget. This step was the culmination
of several years of poor grant-in-aid (GiA) settlements with every
avenue of securing economies by then exhausted. The Trustees made
it clear at the outset that this step was taken with utmost reluctance
and that they were not wedded to charging per se. They introduced
a charging scheme in the NMGM 8 Pass that was as socially
inclusive as possible. This pass allowed unlimited repeat visits
to all eight venues for 12 months for a single charge of £3,
the principal initial objective being the recovery of all input
VAT.
Against this background, the Trustees welcomed
the Ministerial initiatives from 1997 onwards that moved incrementally
towards free admission, and readily embraced each of the stages
on the understanding that the associated business plan income
projections (including VAT recovery) would be fully compensated,
which in the event was the case. The VAT paradox was, of course,
dealt with by legislation.
At each stage in the process we had a very constructive
and open dialogue with the then Arts Minister and his officials
and we were thus readily able to respond positively as funds became
available. Given the requisite level of resource compensation,
there was never any question that NMGM would do other than restore
free admission and, indeed, extend it to all venues for the first
time.
2. SCOPE AND
NATURE OF
RESEARCH
NMGM carries out a great deal of research to
discover visitor opinions and attitudes. Before free admission,
visitors felt the NMGM 8 Pass was very good value for money.
By charging admission we were able to capture information about
our visitors such as age, postcode and numbers in the party. This
data capture opportunity was lost with free admission, and so
a self-complete questionnaire was initiated, distributed to as
many visitors as possible to enable us to continue gathering this
useful information. In this survey visitors are given the opportunity
to make general comments about their visit. Many encouraging and
very positive comments have been made about value for money at
the museums and galleries and particularly about free admission.
NMGM is a member of the Association of Leading
Visitor Attractions (ALVA) and the Merseyside Maritime Museum
participates in its Quality Benchmarking Survey. This is carried
out in three waves per year and we have participated since the
first, five years ago. The following findings are relevant to
this question:
— Looking at value for money overall,
this venue has scored in the top three ranks of all participating
ALVA member sites in the last 3 years.
— The first wave that was conducted
since free admission placed the venue in second place out of the
25 participating sites. Thus it is likely that free admission
has secured this high rank for the Maritime Museum.
3. IMPACT OF
INCREASED VISITS
Our evidence shows a marked increase in recorded
visits since December 2001, reversing a downward trend at that
time (partly caused by closure of displays for building works).
Over the period April-August 2002, there was an 83 per cent increase
over the same period in 2001, partly accounted for by the re-opening
of one of our major venues that had been closed the previous year,
but largely attributable to free admission.
4. FINANCIAL
IMPACT
The increase in visitor numbers thus far has
had an important stabilising effect on what used to be termed
"secondary spend" during a period when one of our major
buildings has been offering a reduced level of service during
construction works. On the other hand, whilst the increase in
visits to NMGM venues is extremely welcome, it has had an impact
in terms of security cover and will have a progressive impact
on the wear and tear of the building fabric. We have estimated
the increase by applying a small percentage factor to the overall
cost of maintaining, servicing and securing our buildings.
5. FUTURE PROJECTIONS
We understand that the compensatory GiA funding
will be built into the baseline allocation in the next Funding
Agreement period, and if this is at a level commensurate with
our business plan income estimates made prior to free admission,
it will be extremely reassuring. It is important to us that compensation
is embedded, durable and index linked, as our scope is very slender
for making good from other sources any loss of value.
We have made some broad estimates of increased
income from retail and catering activity, on a fairly modest scale
fortified by experience thus far, and these have been factored
into the overall business plan projections.
6. WIDER IMPACT
We regard the free admission policy as a very
important initiative towards maximising public access to the nation's
heritage. Removing admission charges from publicly funded museums
removes a very significant barrier to many people, especially
those from economically disadvantaged backgrounds. As long as
free admission is backed up by socially inclusive programming,
then it becomes a potent force for social inclusion.
18 October 2002
2 Prior to July 1997, there were admission charges
at our four "younger" venues [the Maritime Museum (fully
opened 1986), the Museum of Liverpool Life (1992), HM Customs
& Excise National Museum (1994) and the Conservation Centre
(1996)]. The other four venues (Liverpool Museum, the Walker,
the Lady Lever Art Gallery and Sudley House) had long histories
of free admission. Back
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