Sir Patrick Cormack FSA

Conservative Party | Staffordshire South

Question on Ministerial Visits

Sir Patrick Cormack (South Staffordshire) (Con): Notwithstanding the Minister’s rather rough reply to my hon. Friend the Member for Romford (Andrew Rosindell), will he acknowledge again—as he has to me both on the Floor of the House and in Westminster Hall—that English Heritage is suffering from something of a funding crisis? Can he give a guarantee that the new chairman will have greater freedom than his very illustrious predecessor, Sir Neil Cossons, to whom we should all pay tribute?

Mr. Lammy: The hon. Gentleman is absolutely right to say that we should put on record our tribute to the work of Sir Neil Cossons, who has chaired English Heritage superbly. That goes to the heart of the hon. Gentleman’s question. We asked for a quinquennial review of English Heritage just under four years ago. The review found that English Heritage was in need of serious modernisation. Sir Neil Cossons and Simon Thurley have led that project superbly. We are now reaching a point where we are entering into discussions in the context of a spending review and we are grateful for the robust way in which the hon. Gentleman continues to lobby for heritage in this country.