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4 Dec 2006 : Column 99W—continued
In addition to these projects KPMG was commissioned in October 2005 to provide advice on the cost of the Olympic Games. The cost is £1,017,593.
Mr. Hayes: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what items of work her Department has (a) commissioned and (b) undertaken on estimating the cost of a London Olympic Games; what the cost of each project was; what the dates of each project were; and what estimate of costs for the Games was made by each item of work. [106734]
Tessa Jowell: The following projects were commissioned by DCMS to estimate the cost of the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic games:
| Project | Consultants | Cost (£) | |
The first three of these projects informedthe estimate of costs that was submitted to the International Olympic Committee in 2004 in the London 2012 Candidate File. This document is available on the London 2012 website. The work undertaken by KPMG will inform the Olympic Delivery Authority’s corporate plan, which will be published next year.
Art Exports
Mr. Vaizey: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport how much her Department has spent on administering the Reviewing Committee on the Export of Works of Art in each year since 1997. [106377]
Mr. Lammy: The information requested is as follows:
| Expenditure (£ million) | |
| (1 )In 2002-03 the method of calculation of administrative costs changed to include the cost of staff supporting the Committee. (2) Disaggregated figure not available. | |
From April 2005 the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council took over administration of the Reviewing Committee on the Export of Works of Art and Objects of Cultural Interest (RCEWA). The administration costs are included within their overall Grant in Aid.
Art Provenance
Mr. Dismore: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport if she will take steps to require art institutions to check the legitimate provenance of items they propose to borrow from overseas for temporary exhibitions; and if she will make a statement. [106634]
Mr. Lammy:
The immunity provided for in the Tribunals, Courts and Enforcement Bill will apply only to items brought to the UK for public display in a temporary exhibition held at an approved museum or gallery. I will only approve those museums and galleries for the purpose of these provisions if they are able to satisfy me that they follow appropriate due diligence procedures, including checks of the provenance of
items they propose to borrow. They will be expectedto follow the principles in the Combating Illicit Trade:Due Diligence guidelines for museums, libraries and archives on collecting and borrowing cultural material, published by my Department.
Art Theft
Mr. Dismore: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what assessment she has made of the impact of the Tribunals, Courts and Enforcement Bill on the ability of victims of art theft to recover their stolen property if the item is on loan to UK institutions for a temporary exhibition from overseas; and if she will make a statement. [106631]
Mr. Lammy: I have carefully considered the potential impact of the Tribunals, Court and Enforcement Bill on the ability of victims of art theft to recover their property. Only the museums which I have approved will be able to arrange exhibitions of objects benefiting from the immunity provided for in the Bill. A museum can only expect to be approved if it follows appropriate due diligence procedures, including checks on the provenance of works of art it is planning to exhibit. These procedures will help to ensure that any item of dubious origin would be excluded from temporary exhibitions. Our museums are committed to ensuring that they do not exhibit stolen property, and I am confident that these provisions will not adversely affect victims of art theft.
Mr. Dismore: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport if she will assess the merits of requiring institutions borrowing art works from overseas for public temporary exhibitions in the UK to publish a list of those items in advance so as to enable victims of (a) spoliation and (b) art theft to make an assessment of whether such items are rightfully theirs; and if she will make a statement. [106632]
Mr. Lammy: This is an issue we have looked at in framing our proposals on immunity from seizure in the Tribunals, Courts and Enforcement Bill. The Bill has been introduced in the House of Lords and willbe subject to the usual parliamentary scrutiny. The Government will listen very carefully to all points made in the debates on these provisions and will consider whether they will achieve an appropriate balance between the interests of British museums and galleries and the interests of claimants to stolen property. We will be considering the merits of requiring museums and galleries to publish a list of the items they intend to borrow in advance of the exhibition.
Mr. Dismore: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what assessment she has made of the likely effects of the Tribunals, Courts and Enforcement Bill on the Government's commitment to right historic wrongs in terms of spoliation between 1938 and 1945; and if she will make a statement. [106633]
Mr. Lammy:
The Government remain committed to correcting the terrible injustices suffered by those who lost cultural objects at the hands of the Nazis. The immunity from seizure proposed in the Tribunals,
Courts and Enforcement Bill will not apply to any works which are usually kept within the UK, or which are owned by someone ordinarily resident in the UK. Objects in the permanent collections of UK museums will be unaffected by the proposals in the Bill. Claims can still be made against them and referred to the Spoliation Advisory Panel at the request of the claimant. By contributing to the mobility of collections, immunity from seizure legislation can increase information available on the whereabouts of particular works of art, assisting claimants to make claims in the appropriate jurisdiction.
Mr. Dismore: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport if she will bring forward measures to empower national museums and galleries to return stolen or looted artworks to their lawful owners; and if she will make a statement. [106635]
Mr. Lammy: My Department has issued a consultation paper on the restitution of objects spoliated during the Nazi era. The consultation asks whether it would be appropriate to remove the current statutory restrictions to allow museums to restitute works of art in their collections which were lost during the Nazi era. The consultation has now ended and we are considering the responses and next steps.
Mr. Dismore: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport how many items have been identified as looted art by the Spoliation Advisory Panel since it was established; how many of these have been (a) returned to their original owners and (b) the subject of offers of compensation; what the (i) names and (ii) descriptions of these works of art are; and in which institutions they are held. [106653]
Mr. Lammy: The Spoliation Advisory Panel has so far identified seven items as spoliated between 1933 and 1945. None of the items have thus far been returned to their original owners, though negotiations are under way to return one on a long-term loan. Ex-gratia payments have been made in respect of six of the items.
The items identified as spoliated and the institutions in which they are held are:
“A View of Hampton Court Palace” by Jan Griffier the Elder, which is in the possession of the Tate;
“Still Life” attributed to Jean-Baptiste-Simeon Chardin. The painting is part of the Burrell Collection;
The “Beneventan Missal” currently in the possession of the British Library; and
The “Holy Family” by Niccolo dell’Abbate; “An Allegory on Poetic Inspiration with Mercury and Apollo”, by Nicholas Blakey; “Virgin and Infant Christ, adored by St. Elizabeth and the Infant St. John” by Martin Johann Schmidt and“St. Dorothy with the Christ Child” by School of Martin Schoengauer are in the possession of the British Museum.
Copies of the Panel’s reports are available in the House of Commons Library and on the Department’s website www.culture.gov.uk.
Mr. Dismore: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport how many spoliation cases are open before the Spoliation Advisory Panel. [106654]
Mr. Lammy: The Spoliation Advisory Panel is currently working on one case.
Mr. Dismore: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what assessment she has made of the likely effect of the Tribunals, Courts and Enforcement Bill on the ability of rightful owners to recover art and artefacts looted by the Nazis on loan from overseas to institutions in the UK; and if she will make a statement. [106630]
Mr. Lammy: I have considered carefully the potential impact of the Tribunals, Court and Enforcement Bill on the ability of owners of art looted by the Nazis to recover their property. The immunity provided for in the Bill will not apply to art and artefacts on long-term loan from overseas. Only the museums which I have approved will be able to arrange temporary exhibitions of objects benefiting from the immunity provided for in the Bill. A museum can only expect to be approved if it follows appropriate due diligence procedures, including checks on the provenance of works of art it is planning to exhibit. These procedures will help to ensure that any item of dubious origin would be excluded from temporary exhibitions. Our museums are committedto ensuring that they do not exhibit looted art and artefacts, and I am confident that these provisions will not adversely affect owners of looted art.
Mr. Dismore: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what discussions Ministers in her Department have had with Holocaust victims and their representatives on the effects of the Tribunals, Courts and Enforcement Bill; and if she will make a statement. [106896]
Mr. Lammy: I met representatives of the Board of Deputies of British Jews and the Commission for Looted Art in Europe on 28 November to discuss the effects of the Tribunals, Courts and Enforcement Bill.
Arts and Sport Expenditure
Sir Gerald Kaufman: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport how much Government expenditure there was for (a) the arts and (b) sport in (i) 1996-97 and (ii) 2005-06; and what the percentage change was of each figure in real terms over that period. [106381]
Mr. Lammy: The Department’s accounts show£195 million spent on the arts and £52 million spent on sport in 1996-97, and £410 million spent on the arts and £117 million spent on sport in 2005-06.
In real terms, this represented a 68.3 per cent. increase in spending on the arts and 81.0 per cent. in spending on sport during the period.
Concessionary TV Licences
Mr. Vaizey: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport how many pensioner households have received a full television licence in each year since the scheme was introduced. [106565]
Mr. Woodward: The information requested is as follows:
| Number of households receiving free television licences (million) | |
Departmental Staff
Mr. Hayes: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport how many temporary employees were contracted to work for her Department in 2005-06; and what the total cost of such employees was in (a) 2005-06 and (b) 1997-98. [106687]
Mr. Lammy: The Department for Culture, Media and Sport employs temporary agency staff on the basis of a booking which can last from as little as one day to many months. The number of bookings in 2005-06 was 86 and the total cost was £1,147,515. In addition there were a total of 21 staff on fixed-term appointments during the same year at a total cost of £1,255,379. We do not hold the equivalent information for 1997-98.
Digital Television
Mark Williams: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what her estimate is of the numbers of households that will qualify for assistance in switching over to digital television in each parliamentary constituency in Wales. [101661]
Mr. Woodward: Estimates of households in Wales qualifying for assistance:
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