At a recent debate on ‘Charging for Access to Parliament’ Anne opposed proposals by the House of Commons Commission to charge access fees for Big Ben Tours. Whilst Anne was supportive of making savings in Parliament, she pointed to a variety of ways that more savings could be made without charging members of the public to see the Clock Tower; part of their Parliament.

On leaving the debate Anne said:
“I have asked several questions of the House of Commons Commission and found that millions of pounds of savings can be made without having to fleece the public; moving the re-sitting of Parliament after the summer break could save 1.5 million pounds alone. I am pleased that the House of Commons Commission has backed down over charging for access to the Clock Tower, and I think some good has come out of this debate. This debate has highlighted to the public that there is a fantastic resource open to them to come and visit the Clock Tower. I would encourage all of my constituents to get in touch and arrange a tour through my office.”

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Mrs Anne Main (St Albans) (Con): It is a delight to support my hon. Friend the Member for Harlow (Robert Halfon) in this very valuable debate. I accept completely the surprise expressed by the hon. Member for Dunfermline and West Fife (Thomas Docherty) at the fact that we are focusing on costings when there are so many savings to be made, but then I am surprised that the Commission is focusing on this issue. I wrote and elicited the response that it is costing us £1.5 million every year to have a break for two weeks just because we all choose to go off to party conferences. Surely in this day and age we can make that work. If we saved £1.5 million there, it would give us some spare money to keep the Clock Tower free and open to those who choose to go up it. The number of people who can go up the Clock Tower will always be limited to those able and fit enough to walk up the 344 steps—I have not done it yet—and because we need the clearances put on it.

Sir Robert Smith (West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine) (LD): Will the hon. Lady give way?

Mrs Main: I will not give way, because I only have five minutes and many other colleagues wish to speak. I am sure that the hon. Gentleman was going to be helpful though.

There are so many other things that we can look at. I have asked various questions about costings here, and was amazed to find out that £750,000 was spent developing a crèche that is hardly ever used. Early-day motions cost Parliament £1 million. When EDMs started out, they were relatively few and far between. In 2009-10, they cost £87,000 but £776,000 to print. That is £1 million. Since then, we have developed online petitions, so there are other ways of flagging up issues of importance to members of the public. EDMs are an outmoded way of doing so. We could scrap them and save another £1 million. There are plenty of ways to save money in this place.

The savings to be made—or not made, if the figures drop off—from charging a mum, a dad and a couple of youngsters £60 to walk up the Clock Tower will be paltry. Potentially, it will cost that family even more if, as a consequence, fewer people go, because the administration costs will remain the same and therefore they will have to ratchet up the prices. It will become something that only wealthy people can do. Many people come here because they want to see inside this place. With great respect to hon. Members and interesting though many of our debates are, many people also come here because of Big Ben. It is in all the London guides that it is free to come in this place. It is one of the few places students can visit for free—the Crown Estate parks are another example of that.

If we are to save money, which I completely agree we have to do, do not let us pick on a relatively small saving in an area that delivers so much pleasure. Even those people, like me, who have not gone up the Clock Tower always believed that at least we could if we wished. That opportunity is there for visitors who might wish to watch a debate and look around the House, but who might also wish to say, “I went up Big Ben.” This is important. What happens once we start picking off little bits of the estate and saying, “We’re charging for this, and we’re charging for that”?

There is some confusion about the fact that we already charge for tours in the summer recess. I say to hon. Members who raised this point, however, that constituents can visit for free on only three mornings a week unless accompanied by their Member of Parliament, in which case it is free with the tour. For most of the summer, then, constituents could be in the barmy position of having to pay to come into the House of Commons, because their MP is not there to accompany them, but then being able to go up the Clock Tower for free. There are daft anomalies in this place, but I do not think that we should be picking on a very small saving when we could be looking at so many other low-hanging fruits which would save a lot of money.

Unfortunately, we are sending the message that this iconic part of our British heritage is closed for business unless someone can afford to pay. That is a bad message to give, and I hope that the House votes for the motion. We do not want to send this back to the Commission. It could have tackled many other bigger issues but it picked this one. It was the wrong one to pick, and the House should be the decider of that.

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Earlier interventions in the same debate

Mrs Anne Main (St Albans) (Con): I will expand on this point in my contribution, should I catch the eye of Mr Deputy Speaker, but I have discovered through questioning that there are additional ongoing costs of £1.5 million simply for Parliament to come back for two weeks and then be off for another two weeks in September. If we compressed that time and did not have a break for party conferences, which are for political purposes after all, we could save £1.5 million.

Robert Halfon: With that point, my hon. Friend augments my argument that we should be able to debate savings on the Floor of the House, and not just through consultations or by filling out surveys, which people rarely notice among their e-mails.

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Mrs Main: Perhaps I can be helpful, because I have looked into that very point. The reason given is that it takes two weeks to provide security clearance and to do passport checks before people are allowed to go up Big Ben. That might not be possible for visitors, foreign or otherwise. That might be the answer.

Robert Halfon: I am grateful to my hon. Friend for that information. I hope that these points are brought out in discussion.

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Mrs Main: It was the hon. Gentleman, of course, who responded to my inquiry about the ongoing and additional costs of breaking up our sitting and coming back for two weeks in September. Has he made any further progress on that? There could be a massive saving in one lump.

John Thurso: I cannot update the hon. Lady on that point at this particular moment.

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