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Museums and Galleries

Question for Department for Culture, Media and Sport

UIN HL4757, tabled on 6 February 2015

To ask Her Majesty’s Government, for each of the national museums and galleries in the United Kingdom (1) how many staff are employed, and (2) how many of those are now employed through private contractors.

Answered on

18 February 2015

The DCMS is responsible for 13 National sponsored Museums and Galleries in England; other National Museums in the UK are the responsibility of the devolved administrations, and other departments. The Museums that DCMS does sponsor operate at arm’s length from the department, and as such are responsible for their own staffing arrangements. We do not hold the data for staff employed through private contracts, and it would incur disproportionate cost to find out. We do hold details of the museums in house employees in the Public Bodies 2014 publication (https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/public-bodies-2014). As of 31 March 2014 the number of Full Time Equivalent employees was:

Museum

Number of Staff

(Full-Time Equivalent)

British Museum

1033

Imperial War Museum

572

National Gallery

407

National Museums Liverpool

521

National Portrait Gallery

247

Natural History Museum

822

Royal Armouries

145

Royal Museums Greenwich

478

Science Museum Group

833

Sir John Soane’s Museum

44

Tate

1228

Victoria and Albert Museum

634

Wallace Collection

94