DCH 207 National Coal Mining Museum (Supplementary)
RESPONSE BY THE NATIONAL COAL MINING MUSEUM FOR ENGLAND
TO EVIDENCE GIVEN ON 9 JUNE 2004 TO THE JOINT COMMITTEE ON THE
DRAFT CHARITIES BILL
1. The National Coal Mining Museum for England
would like the opportunity to respond to the reported uncorrected
comments of the Rt Hon the Lord Phillips of Sudbury on 9 June
2004, firstly that with regard to the Museum, 'I do not think
they have been well advised' and secondly that '. . . we have
a £50,000 de minimis unrelated trade allowance. I
would be staggered if Wakefield came anywhere near £50,000
worth of teas and coffees'.
2. Firstly the Museum is advised by both one
of the charity law specialists at Addleshaw Goddard and by Brown
Butler, a firm of accountants.
3. Secondly the catering for the Museum's cafeteria
is considered to be ancillary to the purposes of the charity,
and so that part of the catering, including the teas and coffees,
does not fall within the remit of the trading company that will
have to be set up, unlike the conference facilities and the catering
attributable to that.
4. The Museum has just had a major investment
of £6½ million in new facilities, including a new shop
and a new conference room, and a railway between its two colliery
sites, for which a charge is made. This has enabled the Museum
to expand its activities considerably.
5. The £50,000 de minimis level applies
to turnover not to profits, i.e. the cost of providing the services
cannot be set against the charges levied for them in arriving
at the figure to be taken into account in deciding whether a trading
company needs to be set up. Some of the trading, for example the
functions and conferences, make a good profit for the Museum,
whereas others, for example the rent paid by the caretaker, facility
fees for filming on site, charges for train rides, and the Corporate
Friends (set up as much to develop closer links with the local
community), make relatively little profit. The turnover of the
shop also has to be taken into account, because more than 10%
of the goods sold, although all bearing the logo of the Museum,
are deemed not to be educational (i.e. books, school worksheets,
etc) and so are similarly not deemed to be ancillary to the purposes
of the charity.
6. It was on the projected figure for 2004/2005
of just under £300,000 for the Museum's turnover from trading
deemed not to be primary purpose trading or trading ancillary
to its primary purposes that the Museum's solicitors advised that
it was now necessary for the Museum to incur the considerable
costs of setting up and running a separate trading company. The
projected income is based on turnover that had begun to build
up since the completion of the new facilities at the Museum.
7. The estimated cost of £30,000 for running
the trading company will, therefore, constitute some 10% of the
turnover of the trading company, before any costs of staff to
supply the services, purchasing the goods for the shop and the
cost of running the conference facilities are taken into account.
The Department for Culture, Media and Sport, which grant aids
the Museum, encourages national museums to generate as much income
themselves as possible. After paying the costs of running the
trading company, the Museum will be left with relatively little
profit to put towards its charitable objectives, and the £30,000
would be much better used by being added to those profits.
Dr Margaret L. Faull
National Coal Mining Museum for England
APPENDIX I
SUMMARY OF PROJECTED NON-EXEMPT TURNOVER FOR 2004/2005
£
Functions/conferences 150,000
Shop 133,100
Train rides 8,076
Corporate Friends 4,000
Facility fees 1,948
Caretaker's rent 1,066
Total projected non-exempt turnover 298,190
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