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821 1 DECEMBER 2010<br />
822<br />
Point of Order<br />
12.32 pm<br />
Chi Onwurah (Newcastle upon Tyne Central) (Lab):<br />
On a point of order, Mr Speaker. I should like to secure<br />
advice on an answer that was provided to me yesterday<br />
during questions to the Attorney-General. In response<br />
to my question—[Interruption.]<br />
Mr Speaker: Order. May I appeal to hon. and right<br />
hon. Members who are leaving the Chamber to do so<br />
quickly and quietly? It would be helpful if I could hear<br />
the point of order from the hon. Lady—I might then be<br />
in a position to respond to it.<br />
Chi Onwurah: I asked the Solicitor-General about the<br />
UK’s failure to sign up to the proposed EU directive on<br />
preventing and combating the trafficking of human<br />
beings. He said that the UK was a signatory, and<br />
repeated that in response to a question from my hon.<br />
Friend the Member for West Dunbartonshire (Gemma<br />
Doyle). However, that is not the case: the UK has opted<br />
out of the proposed directive. Could you advise me,<br />
Mr Speaker, on what is the best way for the Solicitor-<br />
General to correct his mistake?<br />
Mr Speaker: I am grateful to the hon. Lady for her<br />
point of order. The short answer to her question is that<br />
the best way for a mistake to be corrected is for the<br />
Minister, if he has made a mistake, to correct it. We are<br />
about to hear from the hon. and learned Solicitor-General.<br />
The Solicitor-General (Mr Edward Garnier): T<strong>here</strong><br />
was a degree of confusion; the hon. Lady’s question was<br />
too general. I answered the question correctly. T<strong>here</strong> are<br />
two European directives, one of which is signed, and<br />
one of which is not, hence the confusion. The former<br />
right hon. Member for Airdrie and Shotts, now Lord<br />
Reid, signed on behalf of the Government the European<br />
directive to which I referred in my answer yesterday.<br />
The hon. Lady may have referred to a different directive<br />
that has not yet been signed, so we were both right and<br />
we were both wrong.<br />
Mr Speaker: I do not want in any sense to treat this<br />
matter with levity, but I hope the Solicitor-General will<br />
understand if I say that that absolutely ingenious response<br />
is proof of the argument that no reply from a lawyer is<br />
ever simple.<br />
The Solicitor-General rose—<br />
Mr Speaker: Order. We are grateful to the hon. and<br />
learned Gentleman. The hon. Lady has put her view<br />
very fairly and squarely on the record. We will leave it<br />
t<strong>here</strong> for today. I am grateful to the hon. Lady, and<br />
indeed to the Solicitor-General.<br />
Public Libraries and Museums Act 1964<br />
(Amendment)<br />
Motion for leave to bring in a Bill (Standing Order<br />
No. 23)<br />
12.34 pm<br />
Alison McGovern (Wirral South) (Lab): I beg to<br />
move,<br />
That leave be given to bring in a Bill to amend the Public<br />
Libraries and Museums Act 1964 to broaden the scope of the<br />
general duty of library authorities so as to include a duty to<br />
provide related cultural facilities alongside the library service; and<br />
for connected purposes.<br />
At a time of global economic turmoil, it may seem<br />
strange to some to want to talk about culture. However,<br />
I would like to quote in favour of doing so one of this<br />
country’s finest economists, Maynard Keynes. On the<br />
publication of the first annual report of the Arts Council<br />
in 1945, he said:<br />
“The day is not far off when the economic problem will take<br />
the back seat w<strong>here</strong> it belongs, and the arena of the heart and the<br />
head will be occupied…by our real problems—the problems of<br />
life and of human relations, of creation”.<br />
He was right about that. The economic problems that<br />
we face are real, many and serious; however, culture and<br />
its role in our towns and cities is highly important. I<br />
want to raise the matter in my ten-minute rule Bill, in<br />
order to put on record my concerns about what could<br />
happen to culture in some of our towns, cities and<br />
counties in Britain.<br />
T<strong>here</strong> is real fear out t<strong>here</strong> that t<strong>here</strong> could be not just<br />
cuts in the arts sector—everybody appreciates that t<strong>here</strong><br />
will be cuts and that the cultural sector will need to bear<br />
its share of efficiencies—but the total withdrawal by<br />
some local authorities from providing cultural services.<br />
I give the example of Somerset, which recently cut all<br />
160,000 of its direct grants to arts and cultural bodies,<br />
while Bedfordshire looks set no longer to fund its music<br />
service. I draw on my own experience as a councillor in<br />
the London borough of Southwark, w<strong>here</strong> I had to<br />
watch the local authority close the only children’s museum<br />
in London. That showed me the importance of ensuring<br />
that local authorities continue to prioritise culture.<br />
Of course local funding choices are important. I<br />
would not dream of telling local authorities what to<br />
do—by and large. The Government’s role in giving local<br />
authorities enough funding will have a massive part to<br />
play in determining whether they can provide decent<br />
cultural services. Nor do I want to be prescriptive. I am<br />
not introducing my Bill in order to tell local authorities<br />
that one kind of culture is good for them. Diversity in<br />
the cultural services provided by our local authorities is<br />
a truly good thing. In my experience, great local authorities<br />
lead on culture in places as diverse as Kent, Merseyside—my<br />
part of the world—and Leicester. We have some visionary<br />
local authorities. I pay tribute to what they do in<br />
ensuring that our towns and cities are places we can be<br />
proud of, and w<strong>here</strong> t<strong>here</strong> are public spaces that bring<br />
people together to share in their history and heritage.<br />
The reason for my suggestion is to start a debate. The<br />
Public Libraries and Museums Act 1964 gives the Culture<br />
Secretary an important role. It enables the Culture<br />
Secretary, if they feel it necessary, to say to a local<br />
authority, “You’re in danger of not providing sufficient<br />
library services. I want you to stop with those plans.