Recommendation 21

International tourism to the UK had halved by April 2020 and has continued to decline. Visitor attractions, including museums and galleries, are being hit hard as a result. Not only are these organisations facing an end to the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme in October, they have also largely depleted their financial reserves and are looking at the prospect of only being able to open at a reduced capacity with social distancing measures in place. Losing these important spaces, and the valuable collections they hold, would be a significant loss to our cultural identity. To secure collections at risk from museum insolvencies, the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport should introduce a temporary change to legislation to ensure that if an accredited museum becomes insolvent as a result of the Covid-19 crisis, the institution’s collections cannot be liquidated for financial assets for the first 12 months.