1.  THE PURCHASE GRANT FUND

  1.1  The MGC/V&A Purchase Grant Fund has been administered by the Victoria and Albert Museum as part of its national role, giving support to the regions since 1881. Since 1985 its annual vote, currently £1,000,000, has derived from the Museums and Galleries Commission.

  1.2  The Fund gives grants of up to 50 per cent to museums, galleries, record offices and specialist libraries in England and Wales to acquire material for their permanent collections in the fields of fine and decorative art, history and literature, for the public benefit. Our first concern is that the applicant institution is able to house and care for and interpret its collections to professional standards. Over 200 grants are given annually.

  1.3  The section also co-ordinates the V&A's expert advice to external bodies such as the Inland Revenue and the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF).

2.  RELATIONSHIP WITH THE HERITAGE LOTTERY FUND

  The Purchase Grant Fund staff therefore have a two-fold relationship with HLF: as a fellow grant-aiding body and as co-ordinators of V&A advice to HLF. There is considerable contact both on matters of policy and on particular applications for support for museum acquisitions. Whilst this contact makes me aware of the breadth of HLF activity and achievements I have confined my comments to the area of museums and acquisitions.

3.  OBSERVATIONS

Impact

  3.1  The museum community has benefited tremendously by the advent of the Heritage Lottery Fund which has provided undreamt-of opportunities. Numerous otherwise unattainable acquisitions have been made; building grants have enabled museums to solve long-term problems in the care of and access to their collections. The following comments should be seen in this light.

  3.2  Due to the large sums at its disposal, the Heritage Lottery Fund necessarily has a strategic impact. It is good that HLF now recognises this and intends to work with museum bodies with an overview of museum provision and with regard to museums' own priorities.

  3.3  Particularly with the major grants approved in its early days, there is a danger of large, glamourous projects diverting local resources, council support and sponsorship from core activities and revenue costs. The implications on existing museum provision was not always appreciated. HLF's use of Area Museum Councils to advise is therefore welcome.

  3.4  With a high public profile, subject to political demands and charged with being all things to all people it is extremely difficult for HLF to prioritise. Consequently, HLF tends to pursue its agenda without reference to other bodies in the sector.

  3.5  HLF has been generous in its support for museum collections. The Purchase Grant Fund has successfully jointly-funded some 25 museum purchases but at least one charitable trust has withdrawn support for museum acquisitions feeling they no longer have a role. It concerns me that if HLF is to reduce support for museums and acquisitions in particular, the existing sources of support will have further diminished or disappeared meanwhile.

Process

  3.6  The HLF has a huge task and there are bound to be administrative teething problems. Three years into its existence, however there still appear to be difficulties of process and perceived inconsistency of decision. Considerable responsibility is delegated to officers without a full understanding of the subjects, institutions and systems (such as the art trade) with which they are working. The recent tendency to take less advice from external experts is a worrying one. Management structure might be reviewed to enable better guidance, supervision and support for case officers.

  3.7  HLF also has a public relations exercise to perform. From my direct contact with applicants I see that there is confusion about the process, frustration at delay, a feeling that goalposts are moved and that guidance and attitude are not always as helpful as it might be. Certainly in some jointly-funded cases there have been apparently unnecessary delays.

  3.8  As an adviser to HLF, the V&A experiences similar problems from the other side. We have been asked to respond to difficult deadlines, sometimes for administrative convenience. Simplified, clearer paperwork would be more efficient and timesaving for advisers and all concerned.

4.  SUGGESTIONS

  4.1  The ability to delegate some decision making to bodies with a proven track record would help avert duplication of effort. In some instances, the wheel is being reinvented.

  4.2  HLF could concentrate on areas where there are few alternative sources of support. There is, for example, an essential role for HLF in the funding of major acquisitions which would otherwise be beyond the reach of museums, even with the limited help of other funders. Conservation projects and the proper housing, cataloguing and display of collections are also areas with a shortage of resources.

  4.3  There is a place for the Heritage Memorial Fund as a fund of last resort for outstanding heritage. It has been rather subsumed by HLF and would perhaps benefit from a separation.

July 1998