Recommendation 11

With regard to sources of external income, we asked the Department if it had considered whether charging visitors would result in an overall increase in museums’ and galleries’ revenue. It replied that, since the conclusion of the National Audit Office report, Baroness Hodge in her independent review of Arts Council England had referred to the possibility of charging international visitors and this was something it would want to explore with the museums and galleries. However, it cautioned that this would have to be done very carefully as the introduction of free admission in 2001 had resulted in a lot of public engagement with museums and galleries.29 Early warning of financial failure