How financially vulnerable are England’s museums and galleries? - PAC to investigate
The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) will examine the financial resilience of publicly funded museums and galleries.
Meeting details
The Department for Culture, Media & Sport (DCMS) sponsors and directly funds 15 museums and galleries in England. In 2024-2025, DCMS gave £484m to institutions, including the Natural History Museum, the National Gallery and the Tate Gallery Group. This funding helps to ensure the public has free access to exhibitions, and that collections are properly stored and maintained.
The pandemic has had a lasting impact on the museum and galleries sector – since then, visitor numbers have fallen, running costs have increased and there has been a real-terms decrease in the funding from DCMS. Museums and galleries have become more reliant on self-generated sources of income, leaving them vulnerable to wider economic factors.
MPs will use this session to examine the current financial situation of the museums and galleries funded by DCMS. Questions may focus on the sector’s ability to address financial challenges and how DCMS could encourage stronger collaboration between institutions.
The Committee could also explore what circumstances a museum or gallery would be allowed to ‘fail’ financially, how the sector will be supported to address the increasing threat from cyber-attacks and how DCMS allocates funds, and monitors and assesses performance.