Britain’s Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) has confirmed it will be reviewing the unwelcome exclusion it imposed on national collections that prevents them from returning cultural objects on moral grounds. Change won’t happen overnight as DCMS has a full twelve months to complete this review.

Implementation of the UK Charities Act 2022, delayed until November 2025, now permits charities to make small ex gratia disposals of charity property on moral grounds - without oversight by the Charity Commission or Attorney General.

But in an unusual step, sixteen statutory national museums and galleries, all registered charities, were told these new provisions would not apply to them. This was an unexpected and disturbing development as exclusion impacts on their potential to engage in any kind of discussions that may lead to full restitution, even of the lowest value objects.

DCMS parliamentary under-secretary Stephanie Peacock explained in a November statement that government does not want these new powers to override existing restrictive clauses that prevent the disposal of objects by national collections. The Minister also added the full implications of the Act had not been “debated in Parliament”.

Legal experts have cried foul. In a recent blog, the law firm BatesWells maintains “this argument is incorrect: the impact on statutory charities was clearly explained in the material before Parliament.” The blog also points out it is “constitutionally beside the point, because it is not for government to render a law nugatory because it did not think that Parliamentarians focussed on the ‘right’ issues.”

Further criticism has come from within Parliament itself. A report from its Joint Committee on Statutory Instruments (JCSI), a cross-part committee of MPs and peers that scrutinises secondary legislation, says that “if the government disagrees with legislation that Parliament has passed, the correct approach is to pass new legislation rather than seeking to undercut it by simply not commencing it.”

The JCSI report did not rule the action unlawful because DCMS has confirmed the exclusion was meant to be temporary and not permanent. The Department has also committed to undertake a review of the Charities Act 2002 within five years of it receiving Royal Assent. In other words, by February 2027.

Agreeing to this review does not guarantee a change in direction by DCMS. It could lead to new legislation that maintains the status quo. Nevertheless, it’s encouraging to learn the Department believes the issue should be subject to further Parliamentary debate, as well as to consultation with the sector and the public.

This gives more time for government to learn how other non-statutory museums and collections have responded to legitimate claims for restitution. And as the qualifying rule applies only to ‘lower value’ items, a rule unlikely to be changed, government can relax any fear of high profile and widespread disposals.