Asked by: Chris Elmore (Labour - Ogmore)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
What recent assessment she has made of the impact of the UK's departure from the EU on the music industry.
Answered by Julia Lopez - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The Government continues to support the industry’s adaptation to new requirements, including through our Export Support Service and comprehensive GOV.UK guidance.
Visa and permit free touring routes are available in 24 of 27 Member States including key markets; France, Germany and Spain.
The Music Export Growth Scheme, tripled to £3.2 million until 2025, facilitates UK artist entry into new international markets. MEGS has successfully supported over 400 artist music export projects and SMEs since launching in 2013, with a return on investment of over £13 for every £1 received.
Asked by: Chris Elmore (Labour - Ogmore)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of extending the easement for levying wine duty beyond February 2025.
Answered by Gareth Davies - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Government has supported the wine industry with duty freezes at 6 of the last 12 fiscal events, including the decision at Spring Budget 2024 to freeze alcohol duty until 1 February 2025.
As part of the new alcohol duty reforms, the Government has removed the sparkling wine premium, meaning sparkling wines now pay the same amount of duty as still wines of the same strength. As a result, an 11% sparkling wine now pays 61p less duty than under the previous duty system. While higher strength wines will be subject to more duty under the reforms than under the previous system, lower strength wines will be subject to less duty.
The Government has been clear that the wine easement is a temporary and transitional measure to support the wine industry to adapt to the new duty system by 1 February 2025. The Government is confident that the necessary changes are manageable within the time provided and that the wine industry has the information required to update their systems and calculate the correct duty.
Asked by: Chris Elmore (Labour - Ogmore)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps he plans to take to support the wine industry after February 2025.
Answered by Gareth Davies - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Government has supported the wine industry with duty freezes at 6 of the last 12 fiscal events, including the decision at Spring Budget 2024 to freeze alcohol duty until 1 February 2025.
As part of the new alcohol duty reforms, the Government has removed the sparkling wine premium, meaning sparkling wines now pay the same amount of duty as still wines of the same strength. As a result, an 11% sparkling wine now pays 61p less duty than under the previous duty system. While higher strength wines will be subject to more duty under the reforms than under the previous system, lower strength wines will be subject to less duty.
The Government has been clear that the wine easement is a temporary and transitional measure to support the wine industry to adapt to the new duty system by 1 February 2025. The Government is confident that the necessary changes are manageable within the time provided and that the wine industry has the information required to update their systems and calculate the correct duty.
Asked by: Chris Elmore (Labour - Ogmore)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Attorney General, how many successful prosecutions have been made for new criminal offences created by the Online Safety Act 2023.
Answered by Victoria Prentis - Attorney General
I wrote to you on this important subject on Friday 17 May 2024. For completeness, I set out my full written response below.
Tackling violence that disproportionately impacts women and girls remains one of this government’s top priorities. Women and girls should be able to go about their lives without being subjected to unwanted sexual images. Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) prosecutors are committed to tackling this unacceptable behaviour.
As you know, this government has recently enacted new offences designed to tackle online offending through the Online Safety Act 2023. This includes the offence of cyberflashing and other intimate image offences.
The CPS has welcomed the enactment of these new offences designed to target predatory behaviour and non-contact sexual offences. It has introduced comprehensive updates to prosecution guidance to support prosecutors to better recognise behaviour-driven and escalating offending. Additionally, it has published ‘Communications Offences’ legal guidance which includes online offences relating to violence against women and girls.
Whilst this legislation is still new, the police are referring more cases to the CPS for charging decisions and I can confirm the CPS secured their first conviction for cyberflashing in February 2024, resulting in the offender being jailed for 66 weeks at Southend Crown Court. I am unable to provide detail on any other cases where there may be live criminal proceedings.
Regrettably, I am unable to provide you with data on prosecutions under the Online Safety Act yet. However, in July the CPS will publish its next data summary covering the period January to March 2024 and after this summary release, more granular data may be shared publicly. This pause ahead of publishing data allows for quality assurance checks and internal scrutiny before publication.
Asked by: Chris Elmore (Labour - Ogmore)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Attorney General, how many prosecutions have been made under new criminal offences created by the Online Safety Act 2023.
Answered by Victoria Prentis - Attorney General
I wrote to you on this important subject on Friday 17 May 2024. For completeness, I set out my full written response below.
Tackling violence that disproportionately impacts women and girls remains one of this government’s top priorities. Women and girls should be able to go about their lives without being subjected to unwanted sexual images. Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) prosecutors are committed to tackling this unacceptable behaviour.
As you know, this government has recently enacted new offences designed to tackle online offending through the Online Safety Act 2023. This includes the offence of cyberflashing and other intimate image offences.
The CPS has welcomed the enactment of these new offences designed to target predatory behaviour and non-contact sexual offences. It has introduced comprehensive updates to prosecution guidance to support prosecutors to better recognise behaviour-driven and escalating offending. Additionally, it has published ‘Communications Offences’ legal guidance which includes online offences relating to violence against women and girls.
Whilst this legislation is still new, the police are referring more cases to the CPS for charging decisions and I can confirm the CPS secured their first conviction for cyberflashing in February 2024, resulting in the offender being jailed for 66 weeks at Southend Crown Court. I am unable to provide detail on any other cases where there may be live criminal proceedings.
Regrettably, I am unable to provide you with data on prosecutions under the Online Safety Act yet. However, in July the CPS will publish its next data summary covering the period January to March 2024 and after this summary release, more granular data may be shared publicly. This pause ahead of publishing data allows for quality assurance checks and internal scrutiny before publication.