This made it legally possible for the Museum of London to merge with the Museum in Docklands. Legislation may also serve to enable policy-led changes to the infrastructure. Following its review of non-departmental public bodies (September 2010; UK Parliament 2010), the government proposed to abolish, merge, and modify the constitution and the functions of a number of quangos including MLA, which was abolished. This became law under the Public Bodies Act 2011.
Local authority museums, core funded from taxation, make up nearly half of accredited museums throughout the UK.1 Until the explosion of independent museum foundations in the 1960s and 1970s, these constituted the backbone of regional and local museum provision. The most important local authority museums often originated from the Victorians’ enthusiasm for the educational power of culture, art, and artifacts. A series of Acts that were passed over a period of 50 years from 1845 authorized them to spend money on establishing, collecting for, and running museums. The Museums Act 1845 enabled authorities in places with populations of 10,000 people or more to levy a halfpenny rate; the Public Libraries and Museums Act 1855 allowed for a one penny rate to buy specimens; the Public Libraries (England and Scotland) Amendment Act 1866 allowed authorities with libraries to open museums; the Museums and Gymnasiums Act 1891 allowed all urban authorities to provide support for museums from rates except London (until 1901); and the Public Libraries Act 1892 transferred responsibility for museums to new library authorities.
The Public Libraries and Museums Act 1964 replaced all the previous legislation. It confirmed that local authorities could fund and run museums if they wished but they were not statutorily obliged to do so. The benefits of this are still disputed. Although museums benefit from not being tied down by the inflexible regulation that inevitably accompanies statutory obligations established by Parliament, they remain very vulnerable to funding cuts because the statutory services have priority when resources are tight. Many museum professionals, therefore, consider that securing statutory status should be the top policy objective for the sector. But it is very unlikely that local authorities would willingly add to their statutory obligations and the costs that go with it.
Arguably, more importance is attached to the unintended consequences of legislation. Museums are subject to the law in the same way as any other institution or individual. Many Acts of Parliament are passed which impact upon museums although they were not in the mind of the legislators. There are numerous examples. The Town and Country Planning Act 1990, for example, covers many aspects of strategic development planning which may affect the building of new museums and conservation-led regeneration. The Disability Discrimination Act 1995 (amended 2005) makes it unlawful to discriminate against disabled persons, as well as making provision about the employment of disabled persons. This has had a major impact on museums in historic buildings where accessibility and authenticity can conflict. It adds to a situation created by the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974, where health and safety issues have dominated the management of many museum buildings, at considerable cost and occasionally in a way that seriously compromises interpretation.
In some cases the legislation has no particular impact on museums other than bringing significant additional costs which museums may ill afford. The Employment Rights Act 1996, for example, sets out detailed processes and conditions which employers must respect, regardless of cost or bureaucratic inconvenience. The Freedom of Information Act 2000 enables a person to make a request for information to a public authority and entitles them to be informed in writing whether that information is available. The costs of Freedom of Information inquiries are considered almost prohibitive.
Other legislation aimed at a much wider sector will challenge museums to be clear about their purpose. The Charities Act 2006 expands the existing four categories of “charitable purpose” (the relief of poverty, the advancement of education, the advancement of religion, and other purposes beneficial to the community) developed by courts over the years. There are now 13 categories in total, including “the advancement of arts, culture, heritage or science.” All charities must demonstrate that their purposes are for public benefit. This affects private museums, which may seek tax concessions, but whose purpose may not be for public benefit.
Conservatives, 1979–1997
Over the past 20 years, a major factor in the development and realization of English museums’ policies, frameworks, and legislation is the degree to which the sector is regarded, or regards itself, as delivering on government objectives. During the four Conservative administrations, 1979–1997, the way in which government perceived its relationship with the organizations that it funded changed considerably. As Prime Minister between 1979 and1990, Margaret Thatcher had little interest in the arts or museums. She regarded the promotion of culture as indicative of a nation’s international standing, and thought that support for it should broadly involve “the private sector raising more money and bringing business acumen and efficiency to bear on the administration of cultural institutions” (Thatcher 1993, 634). This is pretty much the same line that the current Coalition is taking too.
Not surprisingly, the museums sector had little obvious connection to the center of government and appeared to contribute little to its objectives, and within government responsibility for the arts vacillated between several departments. Its aims were simultaneously myopic and broad-based, aspiring to encourage public access to, and the appreciation and enjoyment of, the arts and the nation’s cultural heritage. Several of its initiatives were intended to contribute to the maintenance and enhancement of the national museums’ collections and the preservation of objects of historic importance. The Office of Arts and Libraries (OAL) regarded private sector support, sponsorship in particular, as the most likely way of expanding the resources available to its sectors, developing initiatives such as the Business Sponsorship Incentive Scheme, launched in 1984, which matched funding from private sponsors.
Restrictions in public expenditure across the board meant that the whole emphasis of the government’s cultural policy was on plural funding, via sponsorship, marketing, charges, and trading. Thatcher’s introduction of entrepreneurialism to the public sector prompted major reform. Through the Financial Management Initiative, launched in 1982, her government called for greater accountability efficiency, effectiveness, and “value for money” at central and local government levels. It brought about change in the culture of the civil service and government- funded agencies, with budget-holding and -planning regularly impinging on the lives of those who had never previously been required to consider issues of costs and benefits. The implementation of the Financial Management Initiative was largely scrutinized through the Audit Commission and the National Audit Office, both of which were set up in 1983. The former had responsibility for examining the management of local authority auditing in England and Wales and the latter, for reporting on public spending programs in England, Scotland, and Wales. While neither body was, or is, specifically responsible for cultural services, yet museums, galleries, and the arts nonetheless fall within their remits and have been subject to the philosophy that they represent.
These changes impacted on national museums as well as local authority museums in England. They were hit by a series of initiatives designed to introduce a basic understanding of the principles of business managerialism as far down their structures as possible. The introduction of competitive tendering in the early 1980s brought indirect pressure to bear as costs were everywhere scrutinized and tested. The Audit Commission’s report, The Road to Wigan Pier (1991) reminded local authorities “first to be clear about why they are supporting museums, to set objectives for them and then to devise a business or development plan for the service,” and that that their “[s]ervices should be targeted at chosen customers” (Audit Commission 1991, 3). Other indirect reforms included the Citizens’ Charter. This initiative, launched by Thatcher’s successor John Major in 1991, promised better-quality public service provision through the publication of service standards, the right of redress, performance monitoring, penalties, tighter regulation of privatized utilities, and the increased pressures resulting from competition and privatization. “Charter marks” were
