UK national museums to remain free for local, foreign visitors

UK Flag. Photo: Ballymoney Chronicles

The United Kingdom Government has confirmed that national museums in England will remain free for all visitors, ruling out plans to introduce charges for overseas tourists.

The Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport said the decision followed an earlier commitment to work with the museum and tourism sectors and local leaders to explore whether charging international visitors could help address museums’ financial pressures.

The Government said it had concluded that charging overseas visitors could deter domestic visitors and that the effects and benefits of such a policy would not be felt equally across the museum sector.

“Everyone will continue to enjoy universal free admission to our world class national museums in England,” the Government said in a statement published on the Home Office website on Tuesday.

Free admission to national museums was introduced in 2001.

The Government said national museums attract millions of visitors and contribute more than £1bn annually to the economy, with seven of the 10 most visited museums in the UK being national museums.

In 2025, 7.1 million people visited the Natural History Museum, while 6.4 million visited the British Museum.

The Government said the museums also attract visitors from around the world, while their free-entry policy would continue to apply regardless of visitors’ nationality.

The decision follows the review of Arts Council England conducted by Baroness Margaret Hodge and published in December 2025.

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Earlier this year, the Government had committed to examining whether overseas visitors could be charged as part of its response to the review.

However, it said the assessment showed that such charges could have wider effects on domestic tourism and the museum sector.

The Government is also providing funding for museums and cultural organisations through several programmes.

It said the £1.5bn Arts Everywhere Fund includes £760m for museums, while £600m in infrastructure funding is supporting national museums and DCMS-sponsored cultural organisations with critical maintenance and work on their estates.

The funding is also intended to help national museums meet commitments to share their collections and expertise across the country.

A further £160m is being invested in local and regional museums.

The Government said the Museum Estates and Development Fund would help museums tackle maintenance backlogs, while the £13.6m Museum Transformation programme would support organisations in developing more sustainable business models.

It added that it would work with Arts Council England and the museum sector to develop a long-term strategic plan for the future of museums.

“Further details will be released in due course,” the Government said.