Is free thinking on the way out?

A commitment to free entry to England's national museums could become a thing of the past if cuts to already tight budgets continue.

Whispers of an end to free entry have steadily increased in pitch. The economic downturn that led to funding cuts of 0.5 per cent across most government-sponsored museums for 2010-11 guaranteed that these conversations about charging could no longer remain off the boardroom table.

One of the loudest voices has been David Barrie, the former director of the Art Fund. On his exit from the charity in May he gave an interview declaring his belief that free entry is under threat.

Barrie says it is naive if people aren't thinking along these lines. His argument is that after all the cuts to budgets, and with more on their way (Barrie believes that the economy is going to get worse before it picks up) and reduced sponsorship, the nationals will be tempted to look at charging.

The National Museums Directors' Conference says it is committed to free entry to national museums. "Our members have no plans to reintroduce charging," says a spokeswoman.

But a statement from the Science Museum, which used to charge, was hardly reassuring. Asked how committed it was to free admission, the South Kensington museum said it was "unable to comment at this time".

Could it be that the new director of the National Museum of Science and Industry, Molly Jackson, the current head of its trading arm, has a more commercial future planned for the museum group? The National Maritime Museum says a commitment to free entry after 2011 rests on the funding settlement agreed.

David Fleming, director of National Museums Liverpool (NML), told Museums Journal that charging cannot be ruled out. He says in a climate of cuts, all options will have to be considered. And although he adds that he would be "mortified" to reintroduce charges, personal views cannot get in the way of the best use of public funding.

The decision to scrap free entry rests with the trustees of each museum. Although an admission charge will bring in extra cash, museums will lose out in other ways. When the museums scrapped fees in December 2001, they were compensated for what they would lose on the door. If charging was reinstated, this compensation would cease.

According to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, it costs £44m annually to allow the former charging museums and galleries to maintain free admission to their core collections. Since 1999, £354m has been spent on enabling museums to offer free admission.

Sources told Museums Journal that, traditionally, it has been the Science Museum, Natural History Museum and National Maritime Museum that were in favour of charging. The logic behind the South Kensington museums' stance is that their interactive displays are particularly expensive to maintain.

And museums should brace themselves for further cuts if the Conservatives return to government next year. Last month, the shadow health minister revealed that under the Tories, in order to boost the health service, there would be 10 per cent cuts to other departments.

It would be prudent, say museums, to budget for a 10 per cent cut in their finances. Fleming said such a cut would cost NML £2m.

Ed Vaizey, the shadow minister for culture, calls free entry "a totemic policy", and says the party is committed to maintaining it. But he declined to give further information about how this would be ensured.

One source suggests that perhaps museums should consider a mixed economy: free entry during the day but charging in the evenings. How attractive or easy this would be to implement remains to be seen.