3 Current facilities for visitors
14. Apart from those entering through Sovereign's
Entrance to go on the visitor tour route, the vast majority of
visitors to Parliament enter through St Stephen's entrance. There
is a consensus that the current provision for the public at this
entrance, and the main routes after security, remain unsatisfactory:
· queues
for the public galleries are open to the elements;
· the
welcome at St Stephen's Entrance is staffed by police officers
whose first priority is security and controlling the narrow entrance;
· at busy
times, the limited facilities for security screening cause delays
and queues. Security screening takes place in an awkward space
at the end of Westminster Hall (or, at times, in a temporary marquee);
· information
about what is happening in chambers or committees, although improved
recently, remains minimal;
· there
is a cramped bookstall with limited stock; and
· the
main retail and souvenir shops in both Houses are inaccessible
to unescorted visitors.
15. Some progress has been made in recent years by
improving facilities for visitors once they are inside the buildings,
including:
· a
reception desk in Central Lobby;
· the
Jubilee Café, with a lobby containing some information
material, and extra public lavatories;
· plasma
screens which list current committee meetings, sited inside St
Stephen's Entrance and in Central Lobby;
· a Tours
Office with centrally organised guiding based on a common script;
· explanatory
notes for visitors attending select committee meetings.
16. Yet dissatisfaction understandably remains. All
the measures listed have been developed piecemeal. We
believe there is a need to attempt to develop unified projects:
to provide a better access and welcome for visitors; and to provide
information for visitors to explain how Parliament works and its
purpose. It is these three elements—access, welcome and
information—that should be the aim of any projects to improve
visitor facilities.
17. We believe that there is unlikely to be a single
solution which would meet all the requirements set out in this
Report which is why we discuss the solution in terms of projects
rather than a single project. There are multiple requirements
ranging from improved access arrangements to the ideal of a full
interpretative visitor centre. However, there are a number of
constraining factors, the most significant of which is that there
is a lack of adequate space on the main Palace site. The building
was not designed in the expectation that large numbers of the
public would either have the right or the wish to visit.
18. Accordingly, we have reassessed the various elements,
and identified the first priority on which we judge there is wide
support: a new security/reception building at the western end
of the Jubilee Café, to form the main entrance to the Palace
for non-passholders.
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