Peter Bottomley the Worthing West MP and Father of the House of Commons raised a question at the beginning of this week and on Tuesday his question was answered by Dehenna Davison who is the MP for Bishop Auckland and the Under Secretary for the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities. The question from Peter Bottomley took part of the week when the MPs are all based at their constituencies rather than in Parliament. Along with the few words that Dehenna provided, there was also a link to the National Audit Office website on a page that is entitled “Investigation into the management of the Holocaust Memorial and Learning Centre”. The initial text from that page is listed below the question and answer which is published here from within the Government which was a call from one of our local MPs and which can be obtained from here.

Peter Bottomley: To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what estimate he has made of the cost of the National Holocaust Memorial and Learning Centre; what allowance this makes for (a) contingencies and (b) optimism bias; and what the last such estimate of (i) cost, (ii) contingencies and (ii) optimism bias was.

Dehenna Davison: The forecast cost, produced in line with Green Book guidance, was published in the NAO report of 5 July 2022. Costs are currently being reviewed in light of the delay due to the High Court judgement.

Here is the opening part of the piece from the National Audit Office

Background to the report

The creation of a Holocaust Memorial and Learning Centre (the Memorial and Learning Centre) was recommended by the Holocaust Commission (the Commission) in January 2015, which stated the need for a ‘striking new memorial to serve as the focal point of national commemoration of the Holocaust … prominently located in Central London to make a bold statement about the importance Britain places on preserving the memory of the Holocaust’.The Commission also recommended that a new world-class learning centre should physically accompany the new national memorial.