Memorandum submitted by DCMS
This memorandum is submitted in response to
the call for evidence by the House of Lords Science and Technology
Committee. It is intended to complement the fuller and more detailed
evidence submitted by Defra.
The main interest of the Department for Culture,
Media and Sport (DCMS) in this inquiry relates to the role that
museums and other historic collections play in contributing to
systematic biology research and taxonomy. Several of the institutions
that the department sponsors are active in taxonomical studies,
and help to promote wider public engagement in issues such as
biodiversity. Beyond this, the department itself does not seek
to engage directly in this area of scientific endeavour. Consequently,
this submission offers views on just one of the questions set
out in the Committee's call for evidence:
8. What is the role of the major regional
museums and collections? How are taxonomic collections curated
and funded?
The Natural History Museum is a non-departmental
public body (NDPB) sponsored and funded by DCMS. It performs a
wide range of functions, not least as a major international research
institute; as one of the UK's leading visitor attractions; as
a means of promoting public engagement in science and education;
and as a source of expertise on the curatorial and conservation
challenges faced by taxonomical collections. The separate submission
made by the Museum sets out the detail of its hugely significant
role in systematic biology research.
The Museum is one of 14 national museums funded
by the department. In fact, it receives the largest proportion
of government support of any of the UK's national museums. In
the current year (2007-08), the Museum's grant in aid is £45.09
million, comprising a resource GIA of £41.84 million and
capital GIA of £3.25 million. Under the comprehensive spending
review allocations announced by the Secretary of State in October
2007, the Museum will enjoy an above inflation increase in its
resource GIA over the next three years (rising from £43.27
million in 2008-09 to £46.32 million in 2010-11) in respect
of the additional running costs of the new Darwin Centre Phase
Two project. In addition, the Museum was awarded capital funding
of £18.2 million across the three years (compared to £7.6
million over the previous three years—an increase of nearly
140 per cent), to enable it to complete the building work on Darwin
Centre Phase Two.
DCMS has an "arm's length" relationship
with its NDPBs. In practice this means that although the department
has strategic aims and objectives which it looks to its NDPBs
to help deliver, it steps back from involvement in how they manage
their operations on a day-to-day basis. DCMS's strategic objectives
include encouraging more widespread enjoyment of culture, media
and sport; supporting talent and excellence in culture, media
and sport; and realising the economic benefits of the department's
sectors. The Museum has helped to deliver these objectives in
a number of ways, for example:
— Welcoming nearly four million visitors
a year to its two branches (one million of whom are children)
— Offering a wide range of curriculum-linked
learning experiences for all ages and abilities in an uplifting
and motivating environment
— Running the Real World Science partnership
with three regional museums to promote science engagement among
secondary school pupils (funded by the DCMS/DCSF Strategic Commissioning
fund)
— Promoting public engagement in natural
sciences more generally, such as through coordination of the Darwin200
programme
— Generating £6.58 million in
2006-07 from its trading activities
Many of the department's NDPBs, including the
Natural History Museum, also work towards meeting wider cross-government
objectives, including those around environmental sustainability.
The Natural History Museum has a clear scientific remit to explore
the diversity of the natural world and the processes that generate
such diversity. Its research effort therefore focuses on, among
other things, the determinants of biological diversity, how large-scale
physical and biological processes and their interactions influence
the evolution of the Earth and other planets, and the relationship
between biodiversity and ecosystem functioning. Original new research
conducted at the Museum results in over 500 peer-reviewed papers
each year, and the Museum is able to raise significant amounts
of funding from other sources to pursue these ends. It also runs
its research collection of some 70 million items as a major scientific
infrastructure, receiving 8,000 scientific visitors a year.
Beyond the national museums, DCMS supports regional
museums through the Museum Libraries and Archives' Renaissance
in the Regions programme. This allocates £45 million of funding
(2007-08) to museums across the country, with funding set to increase
further in line with inflation over the next three years. Renaissance
hub museums that feature important natural history collections
include, among others:
— Horniman Museum (also a DCMS-funded
NDPB)
— Tyne and Wear Museums (600,000 specimens
at the Hancock Museum/Great North Museum and Sunderland Museum;
also core-funded by DCMS directly)
— Oxford University Museum of Natural
History
The MLA also supports the new Collections Link
service (www.collectionslink.org.uk) which offers advice for the
management of natural history collections.
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