Creative Industries: Freelance Champion

Baroness McIntosh of Hudnall Excerpts

Thursday 22nd January 2026 Lords Chamber

[Lord Wigley (PC)]

My Lords—

[Baroness McIntosh of Hudnall (Lab)]

My Lords—

[Viscount Colville of Culross (CB)]

My Lords—

--- Later in debate ---

[Baroness Twycross (Lab)]

The noble Lord describes exactly what a freelance champion should do: to be a representative and voice for all those across the sector. I will make sure that I forward the working spec to all noble Lords who have taken part in this debate.

[Baroness McIntosh of Hudnall (Lab)]

My Lords—

[Baroness Stedman-Scott (Con)]

My Lords—

--- Later in debate ---

[Baroness McIntosh of Hudnall (Lab)]

My Lords, my noble friend the Minister will agree with me, I am sure, that, within the overall creative industries, the arts sector—performing and visual arts, and museums—is a significant employer of freelance practitioners. I would just say that within that sector there is a great deal of good practice in the employment of those freelancers. What progress has been made on the excellent report that our noble friend Lady Hodge recently produced on the Arts Council, which funds many of those organisations?

[Baroness Twycross (Lab)]

The Government and particularly DCMS strongly welcomed our noble friend Lady Hodge’s review of Arts Council England. It is an excellent read, which I commend to any noble Lords who have not read it. We are planning to publish our full response later this year, but we are already looking in detail at how our noble friend’s recommendations could be worked through.