British Library Annual Report and Accounts 2020/21 HC 427 British Library Annual Report and Accounts 2020/21 Presented to Parliament pursuant to section 4(3) and 5(3) of the British Library Act 1972 Copies deposited with the Scottish Parliament, the Library for the Welsh Parliament, and presented to the Northern Ireland Assembly Ordered by the House of Commons to be printed on 14 July 2021 HC 427 Annual Report and Accounts 2020/21 1 © British Library (2021) The text of this document (this excludes, where present, the Royal Arms and all departmental or agency logos) may be reproduced free of charge in Contents any format or medium provided that it is reproduced accurately and not in a misleading context. Chair’s and Chief Executive’s introduction 04 The material must be acknowledged as British Library copyright and the document title specified. Where third party material has been identified, Annual Report 2020/21 permission from the respective copyright holder must be sought. Our purposes 07 Any enquiries related to this publication should be sent to us Our year in numbers 08 at [email protected] Custodianship 11 Research 15 This publication is available at gov.uk/official-documents Business 19 ISBN 978-1-5286-2695-8 Culture 23 Learning 27 CCS0521581042 International 31 Printed on paper containing 75% recycled fibre content minimum Public Lending Right 34 Enabling Living Knowledge 36 Printed in the UK by APS Group on behalf of the Controller of The year ahead 39 Her Majesty’s Stationery Office Key Performance Indicators 40 Grants and donations 42 Statement of the British Library Board’s and Accounting Officer’s Responsibilities 44 Financial review 45 Reference and administrative details 48 Sustainability report 49 Remuneration report 53 Governance statement 57 Other disclosures 63 Annual Accounts 2020/21 The Certificate and Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General to the Houses of Parliament and the Scottish Parliament 66 Statement of financial activities 69 Balance sheet 71 Cash flow statement 72 Notes to the accounts 73 2 Annual Report and Accounts 2020/21 Annual Report and Accounts 2020/21 3 micro-books at home through online creative activities Our Living Knowledge ambition remains undimmed Chair’s and Chief (with physical activity packs distributed to those at as we face a dramatically transformed decade risk of digital exclusion), and added new resources ahead. In October 2020, we published Living Executive’s introduction to our powerful online learning site which attracted Knowledge For Everyone, re-doubling our over 11.4m visits. We developed new ways to bring efforts in areas – business support, science and our content to those who could no longer physically innovation, regional impact, and inclusion and visit the Library, through podcasts, digital exhibition diversity – that have never been needed more. tours, Curators on Camera films and more. And we deposit responsibilities) and worked remotely where have also reached out across our global networks The urgent national task of renewal and recovery adds we could to catalogue as much of it as possible. The to share our collections and exchange skills and another potent driver for a genuinely transformational professionalism and dedication of staff who have expertise with peers via a range of digital tools. portfolio of major projects. In Yorkshire, our Boston continued to attend the site regularly throughout Spa Renewed programme will transform the historic lockdown, including security, estates, maintenance, Whenever the public health context enabled it, heart of our operations by expanding and improving cleaning and collection care, have been inspiring. we restored Covid-secure access to our buildings. our core infrastructure (including critical storage This task, with all the new systems, processes and capacity for the national collection) into at least Their work enabled teams working off-site to focus on safety measures required, entailed a huge effort the middle of this century. Momentum has been keeping the Library open throughout, even when this and no little ingenuity. The advice and support generated despite the impact of Covid-19. This year was only possible online. In response to the urgent provided by the Department for Digital, Culture, has seen us conduct public consultation on our plans, need to record these times for future research, the Media and Sport and other departments throughout submit a formal application for planning consents, Library established a programme to archive local, this period has been invaluable throughout. and begin the procurement of a Pre Construction Dame Carol Black, Chair and Roly Keating, Chief Executive. regional, and national broadcasts (TV and radio), Services Agreement (PCSA) partner. Alongside this, newspapers, oral histories, websites and other In St Pancras, we collaborated with our neighbours, we progressed our longer term project to establish ‘ We need to capture the lives we are published material. It is already a rich trove of future the Francis Crick Institute (FCI) for biomedical an iconic and permanent public presence in Leeds living at this unprecedented time in insights for researchers and you can read more about research and University College London Hospitals city centre, supported by a further Government the initiative on page 11. to establish a Covid-19 testing centre on-site, commitment of £25m through the West Yorkshire our history.’ carrying out nearly 7,000 drive-through tests. devolution deal. Much of the focus this year has been Volunteer interviewer on the NHS Voices Our work over the last 25 years to develop In March 2021,this collaboration took on another to establish a business case for an initial drawdown of Covid-19 oral history project extraordinary digital resources alongside the physical dimension with around 60 Library staff volunteering from this fund to enable stabilisation works and collection enabled us to maintain and innovate new to support the UCLH vaccination centre based in the surveying of the city’s historic Temple Works building, The task of understanding and articulating our forms of access for our audiences. We collaborated Francis Crick Institute. the potential home for the Library in Leeds. experiences of this extraordinary year will fall to with publishers to expand remote access to licensed researchers, today and in future. It is a reminder of research material, provided online access to collection In July, we reached a vital deal with Transport the vital national memory role that institutions like the items that were used 5.5m times and maintained for London that enables us to proceed with our British Library will play in the wake of the pandemic. the British Library On Demand service throughout development plans in St Pancras, accommodating the pandemic. The latter service prioritised around the proposed Crossrail2 infrastructure. This enabled The pages that follow show how, even in the face 14,000 vital requests for content from the NHS, us to begin consulting with the local community on of extraordinary and unpredictable challenges, the Public Health England, and other medical and plans to create 100,000 square feet of new public Library continued to deliver valued services for pharmaceutical researchers working on Covid-19. spaces for cultural experiences, learning activities, people across the UK. It did so without slowing pace and business support and entrepreneurship. This is all on an ambitious portfolio of strategic programmes We supported over 26,000 entrepreneurs remotely made possible through the creation of a major new whose significance has only grown in the context of by shifting our high impact business support services commercial hub for industry, at the heart of London’s an urgent national task of recovery and renewal. online. To help businesses weather the pandemic, Knowledge Quarter (an area of global significance in we launched Reset. Restart, a dedicated programme fields such as life sciences, data science, and learning). We’ve advanced transformational capital projects to support entrepreneurs to transform, future- in Boston Spa, Leeds and St Pancras, and expanded proof and grow their businesses. We continued The transformation of our physical spaces will UK-wide collaborations with public libraries in to grow the National Network of Business & IP be supported by a programme of significant support of enterprise and innovation. Teams Centres in partnership with public libraries across decarbonisation works, including solar panels and across the Library adapted quickly to delivering the UK, backed by £13m of Treasury investment. a ground source heat pump. This is thanks to a grant our diverse services in a mostly online context, You can find out more about our plans to reach 20 from the Department for Business Energy, and Industrial benefitting from many years of hard work to digitise regional centres and 90 local centres by 2023 on Strategy’s Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme. and collect new digital content for our users. page 19. Our plans will enable more places than ever to benefit from a proven model, with every We also see our well-established collaboration with From the early part of the year, our immediate £1 spent returning £6.95 in economic benefit. UK public libraries as a key area where we can support priorities were to support the wider national public recovery – economically, socially and culturally. As health effort, protect the wellbeing of our staff, Through our culture and learning programmes, we well as growing