The Culture Minister, Barbara Follet has lent her support to work safeguarding and encouraging the transmission to new generations of traditional crafts skills in this country.

Speaking at an adjournment debate on Traditional Crafts in the House of Commons this Thursday Barbara Follett said

"We are keen that the rich intangible cultural heritage of the United Kingdom is properly valued and, when necessary, preserved…. Whether tangible or intangible, however, our heritage is a marvellous asset that we want to protect and nurture.”

Tom Levitt MP for High Peak opened the debate by saying

"We all know someone called Smith, Turner, Potter, Fletcher, Barker, Cartwright or even Thatcher. Those were the names originally given to those people who founded the crafts heritage in this country...It seems that only once these crafts are dead do they come under the remit of the heritage industry, as their products find their ways into museum displays and people take pride in their conservation and celebrate their memory. Why can we not give the same attention to the ailing small industries that create these iconic objects? Are not the skills as worthy of conservation as the products that they create? We assess the relative importance of protecting, preserving and finding new life for older buildings that we see as part of our heritage: why should we not take a similar approach to heritage craft skills, and allocate a budget to do so?"

Tom Highlighted the case of his constituent Mike Turnock the last working sievemaker in the country who despite being keen to pass on his skills has received no support nor funding to train a successor.  
It seems these sorts of once everyday crafts do not currently fall within the remit of any support agency, no one is even aware how many of these old crafts are endangered and how many have already died out.

Barbara Follett then called on local and regional authorities to do their bit along with central Government and its agencies to support these vital heritage crafts.

“As a Regional Minister, I see a role for the regional development agencies and local authorities. They need to play their part, along with central Government and non-departmental bodies, in ensuring that our traditional skills are upheld and preserved.”

The minister said however that the UK government has no plans to ratify the 2003 UNESCO convention on living heritage and did not propose how the government would act to preserve these skills.

In response to Mrs Follet’s statement, Robin Wood, the Chairman of the Heritage Crafts Association said

“The Heritage Crafts Association welcomes the Culture Minister''s comments in support of the traditional or heritage craft skills of this country.  For people like Mike Turnock, the last traditional sieve maker in this country, Barbara Follet’s comments represent a beacon of hope that when they retire, their skills gained from a lifetime of practicing traditional crafts may not fade away with them.”

“However, we are concerned that the full picture of the value of the heritage crafts to the economy, and the scale of the loss that lack of action could produce, both the loss of cultural traditions stretching back in some cases thousands of years, and the loss of economic potential which this cottage industry presents has not yet been fully appreciated by the Government.  In light of the Minister's comments in support of traditional crafts, it seems fair to ask for some alternative plan to safeguard this vital part of our living heritage, and some money to do it with.  We look forward to continuing to discuss these issues with the Minister and her department on an ongoing basis”