Written question asked by Lord Laird (Ulster Unionist Party), in the House of Lords. It was answered by Lord Shutt of Greetland (Liberal Democrat) on Wednesday, 28 July 2010.

Shipping: ““Titanic””

Question: To ask Her Majesty’s Government what proposals they have to organise or support events marking the maiden voyage of the ““Titanic””.

Answer: This department is aware of a number of initiatives to mark the centenary of the sinking of RMS ““Titanic””. A number of national and regional museums and heritage centres have plans to mark the occasion. These include the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich, and the cities of Southampton, where RMS ““Titanic”” embarked, and Belfast, where she was built. Southampton City Council was awarded £4.6 million by the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) in March 2010 to create a new Southampton Sea City Museum which will include a permanent gallery on ““Southampton’s Titanic Story””. In 2008 the HLF awarded a grant of £50,000 to Northern Ireland Science Park (NISP) for a project based at the Titanic’s Dock and Pump-House in Belfast and also awarded a grant of £174,500 to National Museums Northern Ireland (Ulster Folk and Transport Museum) towards the development of its collection ““Titanic: Built in Belfast””. In addition, the Phillips Memorial Park, in Godalming, Surrey, the largest built memorial to a single ““Titanic”” victim, has recently been given initial support and development funding of £25,600 from HLF and the Big Lottery Fund’s joint Parks for People programme to restore the memorial in time for the centenary.

Secondary information