Entry fee would ‘undermine foundational principle’ of national museums

A report exploring the idea of charging overseas visitors to enter the UK’s national museums has concluded that the principle of free admission for all should be maintained.

The Value of ‘Free for All’ report, from the Cultural Policy Unit thinktank, explores the advantages and disadvantages of introducing charges for overseas visitors.

It includes information on how other countries approach admission charges and also explores alternative revenue sources such as a tourist accommodation levy.

The report finds that introducing fees for overseas tourists would present both ethical and practical challenges for the sector that could “prove both detrimental and costly to the UK’s museum ecosystem and reputation”.

The report, written by Alison Cole, the director of the Cultural Policy Unit, and Nathan Lloyd, a senior researcher at the organisation, says introducing discriminatory charges for non-UK nationals would undermine the foundational principle of free and equal access to knowledge.

“The principle that access to knowledge, and to the greatest things created by humankind, should be equally available to all has been largely upheld by all British public collections since parliament created the British Museum,” says the report.

It adds: “The UK's policy of free admission is seen as part of our national education system – a cornerstone of making culture and information accessible to all – and has been zealously maintained by successive governments... Moreover, the national museums now enjoy special status (under Section 33A of the 1994 VAT Act), which has allowed them to reclaim VAT on many elements of their core business since December 2001.”

The report argues that discriminatory admission fees would be difficult to implement without national identity cards, and would come with significant capital costs.

The report says: “Charging entry fees to non-UK nationals and residents… is likely to significantly reduce visitor numbers, with negative knock-on effects on ticketed exhibitions, memberships and ancillary revenue.

“The friction introduced by charging (queues, increased staffing, pre-booking, physical barriers) would significantly detract from the visitor experience and contradict the government’s own definition of ‘free admission’ with its important ‘walk-in’ principle.”

The report goes on to argue that “introducing charges that discriminate could well be the thin end of the wedge in terms of maintaining free admission for all policy, which means that everyone is able to enter our national museums free of charge”.

The idea of charging overseas visitors for entering national museums in England resurfaces from time to time, and is seen by some as a way of boosting revenues at a time of reduced public funding.

Mark Jones, the former head of Victoria & Albert Museum, proposed the idea in a newspaper article in June last year when he was the outgoing interim director of the British Museum.

Proponents argue that it would make institutions more self-sufficient and sustainable at a time when securing private funding is often problematic, particularly when museums having to make difficult ethical choices about the sources of sponsorship.

The UK Government reaffirmed its commitment to maintaining free entry in a House of Lords debate last week.

Responding to a question on whether the government would allow individual national museums to set their own charging policies, Labour peer Fiona Twycross said “we remain proud of the landmark Labour policy, which means that everyone is able to enter our national museums free of charge” and added that the government “currently [has] no plans to charge for entry to national museums”.

Conservative peer Stephen Parkinson, the former heritage minister, said the idea of charging admission “cuts against the excellent work that the sector has done to widen access, and it erects new barriers”.

He added: “I do not want to see people turned away because they do not have their ID, or people from ethnic minorities challenged about their citizenship. Most of all, it lets politicians, local and national—of all parties—off the hook, when they should value and fund our museums.”

An analysis of admission charging will be published in the May/June issue of Museums Journal