Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, which expert bodies and experts in historic artillery were consulted by his Department during the preparation of the Deed of Gift for HMS Victory 1744 which gifted the wreck to the Maritime Heritage Foundation in order to obtain an appropriate commercial value for the battery of bronze cannon which were carried aboard that vessel and were thus Crown property and Crown assets; and what financial value those experts ascribed to those cannon.

No expert bodies or experts in historic artillery were consulted by my department on the commercial value of the bronze cannon during the preparation of the Deed of Gift for HMS Victory 1744.