Visitor Access and Facilities

House of Commons Administration Committee Visitor Access and Facilities First Report of Session 2012–13 Volume I: Report, together with formal minutes and oral evidence Written evidence is contained in Volume II, available on the Committee website at www.parliament.uk/ac Ordered by the House of Commons to be published 14 May 2012 HC 13 (incorporating HC 1556–i, ii, iii, vi, v and vi of Session 2010–12) Published on 23 May 2012 by authority of the House of Commons London: The Stationery Office Limited £14.50 The Administration Committee The Administration Committee is appointed to consider the services provided by and for the House of Commons. It also looks at services provided to the public by Parliament, including visitor facilities, the Parliament website and education services. Current membership Rt Hon. Sir Alan Haselhurst MP (Conservative, Saffron Walden) (Chair) Rosie Cooper MP (Labour, West Lancashire) Thomas Docherty MP (Labour, Dunfermline and West Fife) Rt Hon. Mark Francois MP (Conservative, Rayleigh and Wickford) Mark Hunter MP (Liberal Democrat, Cheadle) Mr Kevan Jones MP (Labour, North Durham) Simon Kirby MP (Conservative, Brighton Kemptown) Dr Phillip Lee MP (Conservative, Bracknell) Nigel Mills MP (Conservative, Amber Valley) Tessa Munt MP (Liberal Democrat, Wells) Sarah Newton MP (Conservative, Truro and Falmouth) Rt Hon. John Spellar MP (Labour, Warley) Mark Tami MP (Labour, Alyn and Deeside) Mr Dave Watts MP (Labour, St Helens North) Mike Weatherley MP (Conservative, Hove) The following members were also members of the committee during the inquiry: Geoffrey Clifton-Brown MP (Conservative, The Cotswolds) Bob Russell MP (Liberal Democrat, Colchester) Angela Smith MP (Labour, Penistone and Stocksbridge) Mr Shailesh Vara MP (Conservative, North West Cambridgeshire) Powers The powers of the Committee are set out in House of Commons Standing Order No 139, which is available on the Internet via www.parliament.uk. Publication The Reports and evidence of the Committee are published by The Stationery Office by Order of the House. All publications of the Committee (including press notices) are on the internet at www.parliament.uk/ac. The Reports of the Committee, the formal minutes relating to that report, oral evidence taken and some or all written evidence are available in a printed volume. Additional written evidence may be published on the internet only. Committee staff The current staff of the Committee are David Weir (Clerk), Keith Neary (Second Clerk), Dawn Brown (Committee Assistant) and Liz Parratt (Media Officer). Contacts All correspondence should be addressed to the Clerk of the Administration Committee, House of Commons, London SW1A 0AA. The telephone number for general enquiries is 020 7219 4151; the Committee’s email address is [email protected]. Visitor Access and Facilities 1 Contents Report Page 1 Introduction 3 2 Purposes of the House of Commons 5 Legislation and holding the Executive to account 5 Visitor attraction 5 3 Types of visitor 7 Entering parliament 7 The fast track 7 The standard queue 8 Members’ tours 9 Courtesies 9 Weekend and summer opening 10 Specialist tours 12 4 Practical arrangements 14 Security arrangements 14 Cromwell Green 14 Portcullis House 16 Black Rod’s Garden Entrance 17 Other entrances: Derby Gate; Parliament Street; Peers Entrance 18 St Stephen’s Entrance 18 Visitor Route 19 Queuing 20 Central booking system 20 Welcoming visitors 22 Educational facilities 23 Education service and provision 24 School visit subsidy scheme 25 Outreach 25 Guides and audio guides 26 Summer recess and works 27 5 Income generation 28 Shops 28 Parliamentary Bookshop 28 Souvenir shop 29 Online shop 30 Cafeterias 30 Conclusions and recommendations 32 2 Visitor Access and Facilities Formal Minutes 37 Witnesses 38 List of written evidence 39 Visitor Access and Facilities 3 1 Introduction 1. Approximately 1 million people enter the parliamentary estate every year as visitors rather than as Members or staff of the two Houses of Parliament. Their reasons for doing so are varied, ranging from official appointments as witnesses to Select Committees to visits as constituents or tourists who wish to see inside one of the United Kingdom’s most famous buildings. The two Houses must balance the business needs of a fully working legislature and those of a visitor attraction. This raises various challenges, not least the logistical difficulty of ensuring that the work of Parliament is not adversely affected by the presence of ‘non-business’ visitors while simultaneously ensuring that those people obtain a full and rewarding experience of the operation, art, history and heritage of their Parliament. 2. The Commons and the Lords are publicly committed to opening the Houses of Parliament to visitors. The Commons, in its strategy to 2015, specifically includes “making the House more welcoming to the public” among its means of earning respect for the House as our central democratic institution.1 Since 1997, the Commons has been formally committed to bringing more people on to the estate, particularly for educational purposes, as well as to taking the House’s work, history and heritage out to the public via the website, the education service and an outreach service that now has House of Commons staff working in various regions of the UK. 3. To some degree, that commitment has been fulfilled. Some 123,468 people visited the public gallery in the House of Commons in 2010–11, and another 122,084 enjoyed tours sponsored by Members of Parliament.2 The number of schoolchildren making a visit rises each year and is about 40,000 annually, the UK Youth Parliament has had four annual sittings, using both Chambers, and the opening of parliamentary buildings to paying visitors during the summer recesses and on Saturdays has proved that a significant proportion of the 30 million people estimated to visit the Westminster area each year are extremely interested in seeing the inside of one of the world’s most iconic buildings. Saturday opening and summer recess opening have also demonstrated considerable interest in the place. 4. Parliament is first and foremost a working institution, and that implies clear principles for how access is organised. Democratic access to the work of Parliament must remain free and open, enabling any citizen, at least so far as physical space allows, open access to sittings in the two Chambers, in the Committee Rooms and in Westminster Hall, or to meet their Member of Parliament. Other visitor access to the buildings must always be secondary to the primary purpose of the working institution. 5. It is necessary, however, that Members and staff of both Houses recognise a second, complementary concept of “Parliament”—as a visitor attraction. This raises new questions about how to make the buildings accessible to the public on the 200-plus days of the year 1 House of Commons Commission, New Parliament: strategy for the House of Commons Service 2010–15, http://www.parliament.uk/mps-lords-and-offices/offices/commons/house-of-commons-commission/strategicplan10- 15/ 2 House of Commons Commission, Annual Report 2010/11, p. 37 4 Visitor Access and Facilities when one or other House, and usually both, are not sitting. Until now, commercial opening—unknown and unthinkable a decade ago—has been conducted on a partial cost- recovery basis. But the two Houses face financial challenges—the Commons seeks to reduce its overall budget by 17 per cent by 2014–15 against its 2010–11 baseline. The idea of recouping through charging for tours some of the running costs of providing Parliament—around £231 million for Commons administration in 2010–11—is gaining ground, particularly as a means of raising the funds for the maintenance and renovation of the palace buildings. 6. The two Houses already defray the costs of providing some services through activities that generate a surplus—notably banqueting events such as dinners and receptions, and the sale of souvenirs. Considerable work needs to be done on how the visitor attraction part of Parliament is best operated, not least in persuading some reluctant Members and staff of both Houses and an often instinctively negative media to recognise the difference between democratic access to the work of the place and interest in its heritage and tourism aspects. 7. The central idea that has emerged in this inquiry is that two conceptions of Parliament are required: the working institution and the visitor attraction. The two should be complementary, not in conflict, and some of the tensions that presently arise from, for example, queues outside the building and the consequent delay of business meetings for Members and others would be resolved if the two concepts were more rigorously held apart. Visitor Access and Facilities 5 2 Purposes of the House of Commons Legislation and holding the Executive to account 8. The primary purpose of the House of Commons is to be the national Parliament of the United Kingdom. None of what follows is intended to conflict with that purpose, and where there is any clash between the principle of being as open and welcoming to visitors as possible and the primary purpose of the institution, there is no doubt that the latter principle is superior. That proposition is agreed by Members, the House authorities and external bodies. As John Pullinger, the Director-General of Information Services, put it: “Our prime purpose is the business of Parliament; our prime purpose is not to be a historic monument preservation body”.3 Bernard Donoghue, Director of the Association of Leading Visitor Attractions (ALVA), agrees: “like most museums, galleries and stately homes, being a commercial attraction is not [the House’s] principal purpose for existing”.4 Dr Ruth Fox, Director of the Hansard Society’s parliament and government programme, added: “the primary function of this building is as a working legislature [...] To my mind, visitor numbers and accessibility have to be managed around that”.

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