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

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what steps he is taking to tackle (a) reports of poor employment practices, (b) insecure work and (c) the gig economy within publicly-funded cultural institutions.

Following the decision of the Employment Tribunal, the National Gallery paid a total of £158,000 (inclusive of VAT) in backdated holiday pay to those individuals who were found by the Tribunal to have had ‘worker’ status while providing education services for the Gallery.

In common with all publicly funded cultural institutions, the National Gallery operates independently and at arm’s length from Government. Arm’s Length Bodies are required to adhere to all relevant employment law, but their individual staffing structures and contractual arrangements are decisions to be taken solely by the gallery’s executive and trustees.

I understand, however, that the National Gallery disputes the way in which aspects of this case have been characterised, including the notion that the employment tribunal was a test case for the ‘gig economy’ in the arts. More broadly, the 2017 Mendoza Review of Museums in England considered in detail the nature of employment in the museums sector; the Review Team found no evidence of widespread poor practice or insecure employment in the museums sector.