Legislative Consent Memorandum
Holocaust (Return of Cultural Objects) Bill
Draft Legislative Consent Motion
1. The draft motion, which will be lodged by the First Minister, is:
"That the Parliament agrees that the relevant provisions of the Holocaust (Return of Cultural Objects) Bill, introduced in the House of Commons on 26 January 2009, relating to the return from public museum and gallery collections of cultural objects stolen during the Nazi era, so far as these matters fall within the legislative competence of the Scottish Parliament, should be considered by the UK Parliament."
Background
2. This memorandum has been lodged by the First Minister, under Rule 9.B.3.1(b) of the Parliament's standing orders. The Holocaust (Return of Cultural Objects) Bill was introduced in the House of Commons on 26 January 2009. The Bill can be found at:
http://services.parliament.uk/bills/2008-09/holocauststolenartrestitution.html
Content of the Holocaust (Return of Cultural Objects) Bill
3. The purpose of the Bill is to enable the trustees of specified national museum and gallery collections to return to their rightful owners, or to their heirs, cultural objects stolen during the Nazi era. The legislation is required because those institutions named in the Bill are currently prevented by statute from taking such action. The power to return objects in such circumstances would be exercisable following the finding of an advisory body established by the Secretary of State that the object in question was "spoliated" in the Nazi era, and the acceptance of that finding by the Secretary of State. The panel for such purposes, established in 2000, is the Spoliation Advisory Panel, chaired by Sir David Hirst.
Provisions which relate to Scotland
4. With the agreement in principle from the Scottish Government, amendments to the Bill were agreed at committee stage on 10 June to bring the National Museums of Scotland, the National Galleries of Scotland and the National Library of Scotland into the scope of the Bill. These institutions are currently prevented from returning objects accepted as having been stolen during the Nazi era because of their general statutory duties to preserve their collections. These duties are contained in, respectively, the National Heritage (Scotland) Act 1985, the National Galleries of Scotland Act 1906 and the National Library of Scotland Act 1925.
5. The agreed amendments to the Bill also require the Secretary of State to gain the agreement of the Scottish Ministers prior to approving decisions regarding any recommendations from the advisory body in relation to these three institutions in Scotland. The Secretary of State will commence provisions in so far as they apply to Scotland but only after consultation with the Scottish Ministers as to such commencement.
Reasons for seeking a Legislative Consent Motion
6. Overall the Bill is a small and uncontroversial proposal and it would be difficult to justify taking up the Scottish Parliament's time with a separate Bill. Allowing the UK Parliament to legislate for Scotland in this area would enable the Bill's provisions on this important moral issue to come into force in different parts of the UK at the same time and on the same basis.
Consultation
7. The UK Government's Department for Culture, Media and Sport issued a consultation paper in 2006, seeking views on whether to lift the statutory and other legal restrictions relating to the return of objects lost during the Nazi era. There was general agreement that this would be the appropriate way forward. The consultation paper and responses received are available at the following link:
http://www.culture.gov.uk/reference_library/consultations/1116.aspx
Financial implications
8. The financial implications of the Bill in Scotland are likely to be very limited. In the current absence of a power to return objects to their owners, the national collections in Scotland could, in theory, face claims for ex-gratia compensation payments, were any items in their collections to be identified as having been stolen in the Nazi era.
9. The national collections have, in any case, undertaken significant work in recent years to establish the provenance of their collections, with only a small number of items identified for which a full past history could not be satisfactorily established.
Conclusion
10. Scottish Ministers accept the important moral arguments for changing the law in relation to national collections' ability to return cultural objects stolen during the Nazi era. The proposals in the Holocaust (Return of Cultural Objects) Bill achieve this and the motion provides a simple and effective means for Scottish institutions to be included.
Scottish Government
June 2009