British Library Board (Power to Borrow) Bill (First sitting)

John Spellar Excerpts

Committee stage & Committee Debate: House of Commons
Wednesday 30th September 2020 Public Bill Committees

[Tracy Brabin (Batley and Spen) (Lab/Co-op)]

It is a real pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Robertson.

I congratulate the hon. Member for Hitchin and Harpenden on his private Member’s Bill and on his very short speech. Mine will be slightly longer, so I would just like a little patience from the other Government Members.

I am a passionate supporter of the Bill. Labour supported it on Second Reading and we continue to support it in Committee. The British Library has been keen to obtain the power to borrow for some time; hopefully, that wait is almost over.

As a member of the British Library, I am a big fan of its work. When we debated the Bill back in March, which seems like a lifetime ago, Members from all parties were enthusiastic about the future of the library, especially after a Budget that brought good news for it: it promised £95 million for the Boston Spa Renewed project, and a further £25 million to support the library in opening a British Library North in Leeds city centre. Members will not be surprised to learn that, as a Yorkshire MP, I am very keen to see that come to fruition.

That is because a physical presence for our national institutions outside central London sends a powerful message, and opens the door to opportunity for all. Examples include the Victoria and Albert Museum in Dundee, the BBC in Salford and the Imperial War Museum North in Manchester, and soon Channel Four will have a presence in Leeds, which I have also championed. The British Library already employs hundreds of people at its impressive Boston Spa site, but I am looking forward to millions more having ready access to the library’s resources and exhibitions when it opens in Leeds.

I want to put on record that the power to borrow should not lead to an expectation of borrowing. The grant funding that the British Library receives must remain in place, and new powers to borrow must allow the library to innovate and pursue projects such as efficiency improvements to the estate, upgrading to more efficient digital systems, and developing commercial products and services that could supplement the library’s grant in aid. Also, I am keen to see the library use any financial freedom to improve its digital platforms, as the hon. Member for Hitchin and Harpenden said, and particularly its digital collections.

[John Spellar (Warley) (Lab)]

My hon. Friend rightly identifies the role of the British Library, a great British institution doing a lot of work in this country, but is it not also part of our international outreach? It engages with similar institutions as part of Britain’s cultural offer to the world, which is one of the great attractors to this country.

[Tracy Brabin]

My right hon. Friend is absolutely right. Certainly, when I sit in the reading rooms of the British Library, I see international students from all over the world. The library is part of the soft power that draws the cleverest people from across the world to London, and will hopefully draw them to Leeds.

I want the library to keep growing and expanding its outreach work. In many communities, libraries have been lost or cut, so it is important that exhibitions and galleries are not confined to King’s Cross. The library should always be seeking opportunities to get out to new areas. Indeed, it recently produced pop-up displays in over 20 partner libraries across the UK, through its Living Knowledge Network. That is the sort of innovation that I encourage; let us hope that we see more of it.

It is easy to look excitedly at the possibilities for the future and ignore the elephant in the room. Covid has impacted all walks of life, and the British Library has not been exempt. It was closed for four months, and even now, after reopening, footfall is significantly suppressed due to social distancing requirements. Of course, this has a major financial impact, and with visitor numbers a fraction of what they were, the library is likely to continue to face financial hardship for a period to come. I know that the library has drawn down on DCMS support already, and that all of us present are keen to see the library thrive again in future. I applaud it for prioritising access to reading rooms for medical research, and for using some of its space for a testing centre.

Earlier I touched on digitisation. The library has worked hard during covid to expand its online offering. The current exhibition of Hebrew manuscripts is available online, and its next exhibition, “Unfinished Business: The Fight for Women’s Rights”, has an exciting digital offer, too, including online discussions, a podcast series, and online resources for researchers.

The Bill brings the British Library in line with DCMS-sponsored museums and galleries, as well as the British Film Institute, the Churches Conservation Trust, Historic England and more, by allowing it to borrow money as its peers already do. However, we need to support the library, and many other organisations, not only in borrowing money in future, but in the here and now, during the covid crisis, and we need to reach out across our communities. The British Library has made great strides in that direction already, and we support it and its power to borrow money.