Hospitality Businesses

Earl of Devon Excerpts

Tuesday 27th January 2026 Lords Chamber

[Lord Stockwood (Lab)]

I welcome the noble Lord to the Chamber and thank him for his question. The national government policy that has been announced since we came in is critical, and local government is an even more critical part of leadership in our communities. Not only do local authorities offer the vision and ability to enact what is relevant to each community but they are close enough to the hospitality sector and individual high streets to know what is needed. I thank the noble Lord for his contributions so far and look forward to working with him.

[The Earl of Devon (CB)]

My Lords—

[Lord Harper (Con)]

My Lords—

--- Later in debate ---

[The Earl of Devon (CB)]

My Lords, hospitality businesses across the south-west of England, particularly those in our coastal and rural areas beloved of tourists, suffer from an inability to attract staff in specialist roles. A major cause of this is a chronic lack of suitable housing, particularly due to planning restrictions and the popularity of second homes. What steps are His Majesty’s Government taking to ensure that housing is available for those seeking a career in hospitality in our rural and coastal communities? I note my interest as the owner of a hospitality business in Devon.

[Lord Stockwood (Lab)]

I believe the original Question was about helping the hospitality sector. The comment about housing is outside the purview of my domain of expertise as Minister for Investment. However, the Government are investing in young people’s futures holistically. We have seen a sharp decline in apprenticeships. We are trying to implement a new foundation apprenticeship to give young people a route into critical sectors. While I acknowledge that housing is a critical part of that, making the economy grow more holistically is a way that we can ensure that the hospitality sector works in its own right.

Generative AI: Intellectual Property Rights

Earl of Devon Excerpts

Monday 11th November 2024 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Jones of Whitchurch (Lab)]

My Lords, I pay tribute to the Lords committee that has considered this issue. We are keen to make progress in this area but it is important that we get it right. The previous Government had this on their table for a long time and were not able to resolve it. The Intellectual Property Office, DSIT and DCMS are working together to try to find a way forward that will provide a solution for creative media and the AI sectors. Ministers—my colleagues Chris Bryant and Feryal Clark—held round tables with representatives of the creative industries and the AI sector recently, and we are looking at how we can take this forward to resolve the many issues and questions that the noble Lord has quite rightly posed for me today.

[The Earl of Devon (CB)]

My Lords, in the absence of legislation or policy it is left to the courts to wrestle with whether the training of large language models infringes copyright. For over two years now, cases have been progressing in the US, in Europe and in the UK. A German first-instance decision recently found in favour of the machines—it will be appealed. Noting my interests as an IP litigator, do the Government believe, as I do, that English common law is capable of resolving this tricky issue?

[Baroness Jones of Whitchurch (Lab)]

My Lords, the Government are clear that copyright law must be respected when content is used to train AI models. If copies are made of protected work, licences must be required from the copyright owner unless a specific copyright exception applies. The problem is that the law does not yet apply equally to generative AI models, and that is the issue we are grappling with. Our view is that this should not necessarily be left to the law; unfortunately, it takes a long time for these legal cases to be resolved. We are trying to find a way forward that will be fair to everybody but that does not require the long legislative process that I know the noble Earl is all too aware of.