Asked by: Pete Wishart (Scottish National Party - Perth and North Perthshire)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, if she will make an assessment of the trends in the level of freelance employment in creative industries in the next five years; whether her Department is taking steps to help support growth in freelance employment in the sector; and if she will make an assessment with Cabinet colleagues of the potential merits of introducing social security programmes to help support freelance employees in the sector.
Answered by Julia Lopez - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The Government recognises the essential contribution freelancers make to the creative industries.
A key ambition of the Creative Industries Sector Vision, published in June 2023, is to improve the job quality and working practice of the sector, including the self-employed. As part of this ambition, Government and industry have agreed to work together to address the recommendations of the Good Work Review. An action plan is being developed and proposals include the recent launch of the British Film Institute’s £1.5 million Good Work Programme for screen.
Arts Council England’s current Delivery Plan includes ‘increasing our support for individuals’ as one of its five themes and sets high expectations for all cultural organisations which work with creative and cultural professionals. Its online toolkits support practitioners and employers by setting out good-practice approaches, and signposting people to other supportive resources.
Universal Credit and Jobcentre Plus support is available to those who are looking for work, and those who are in work but with low earnings, and this includes the self-employed. This support is available to all, regardless of sector.
Asked by: Pete Wishart (Scottish National Party - Perth and North Perthshire)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what steps her Department is taking to help support people in freelance creative professions.
Answered by Julia Lopez - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The Government recognises the essential contribution freelancers make to the creative industries.
A key ambition of the Creative Industries Sector Vision, published in June 2023, is to improve the job quality and working practice of the sector, including the self-employed. As part of this ambition, Government and industry have agreed to work together to address the recommendations of the Good Work Review. An action plan is being developed and proposals include the recent launch of the British Film Institute’s £1.5 million Good Work Programme for screen.
Arts Council England’s current Delivery Plan includes ‘increasing our support for individuals’ as one of its five themes and sets high expectations for all cultural organisations which work with creative and cultural professionals. Its online toolkits support practitioners and employers by setting out good-practice approaches, and signposting people to other supportive resources.
Universal Credit and Jobcentre Plus support is available to those who are looking for work, and those who are in work but with low earnings, and this includes the self-employed. This support is available to all, regardless of sector.
Asked by: Pete Wishart (Scottish National Party - Perth and North Perthshire)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, whether she has made an assessment of the (a) long-term viability and (b) economic sustainability of freelance journalism.
Answered by Julia Lopez - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
Journalists, including freelancers, play an important role in holding power to account and keeping the public informed by providing reliable, high-quality information.
As the independent Cairncross Review into the future of journalism identified, society is increasingly moving online and news publishers are facing significant challenges in transitioning to sustainable digital business models, particularly at local level - and this presents challenges both for publishers and the freelancers that they contract.
The Government is taking action to support journalists. We set up the National Committee for the Safety of Journalists (NCSJ) in 2020, bringing together government, representatives bodies for journalists, police and prosecuting authorities as well as civil society groups to improve ways journalists, especially freelancers, can be supported and given the resources and training they need and set this our in the 2021 National Action Plan for the Safety of Journalists.
We are also supporting the news publishers that employ or contract journalists. To date, this support has included the introduction of the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumer Bill, which among many other things will help to rebalance the relationship between publishers and platforms; the delivery of a £2 million Future News Fund, designed to invest in new technological prototypes, start-ups and innovative business models to explore new ways of sustaining the industry in this changing landscape; the zero rating of VAT on e-newspapers; the extension of a 2017 business rates relief on local newspaper office space until 2025; We continue to consider all possible options in the interests of promoting and sustaining news journalism.
Asked by: Pete Wishart (Scottish National Party - Perth and North Perthshire)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what steps her Department is taking to support the livelihoods of people in the creative industries during the period of increases to the cost of living.
Answered by Julia Lopez - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The Government is aware of the number of issues facing the creative industries as a result of rising inflation and rising energy prices.
In September 2022 the government announced support for businesses, including businesses within the creative industries, through the Energy Bill Relief Scheme. This is expected to cut non-domestic energy bills by between one-quarter and one-third up until March 2023. BEIS recently launched a 3 month review into the effectiveness of the Energy Bill Relief Scheme. DCMS continues to work with BEIS and industry to analyse the impact of the current Energy Bill Relief Scheme on our sectors.
Support is also available through the targeted support package announced by the Chancellor of the Exchequer in May, worth over £37 billion in total, to ease the cost of living burden on millions of households with the greatest need, including those working in the creative industries.
The creative industries are some of the fastest growing sectors in the UK economy, contributing £116 billion in GVA and employing 2.1 million people. That is why we are developing a Sector Vision to set out our ambitions for the sector between now and 2030, which we will publish in the coming months.
Supporting the resilience of the creative industries’ workforce in the long-term is a key objective of the Policy and Evidence Centre’s Review of Job Quality and Working Practice in the Creative Industries which was co-funded by DCMS and is due to be published later this year. The Government will work with industry to consider its recommendations.
The Government is also supporting the creative industries through Arts Council England, which recently announced support for 990 organisations across the creative and cultural sectors as part of its 2023-2026 Investment Programme.
Asked by: Pete Wishart (Scottish National Party - Perth and North Perthshire)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what steps her Department is taking to protect public funding for creative industries during the period of increases to the cost of living.
Answered by Julia Lopez - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The Government is aware of the number of issues facing the creative industries as a result of rising inflation and rising energy prices.
In September 2022 the government announced support for businesses, including businesses within the creative industries, through the Energy Bill Relief Scheme. This is expected to cut non-domestic energy bills by between one-quarter and one-third up until March 2023. BEIS recently launched a 3 month review into the effectiveness of the Energy Bill Relief Scheme. DCMS continues to work with BEIS and industry to analyse the impact of the current Energy Bill Relief Scheme on our sectors.
Support is also available through the targeted support package announced by the Chancellor of the Exchequer in May, worth over £37 billion in total, to ease the cost of living burden on millions of households with the greatest need, including those working in the creative industries.
The creative industries are some of the fastest growing sectors in the UK economy, contributing £116 billion in GVA and employing 2.1 million people. That is why we are developing a Sector Vision to set out our ambitions for the sector between now and 2030, which we will publish in the coming months.
Supporting the resilience of the creative industries’ workforce in the long-term is a key objective of the Policy and Evidence Centre’s Review of Job Quality and Working Practice in the Creative Industries which was co-funded by DCMS and is due to be published later this year. The Government will work with industry to consider its recommendations.
The Government is also supporting the creative industries through Arts Council England, which recently announced support for 990 organisations across the creative and cultural sectors as part of its 2023-2026 Investment Programme.
Asked by: Pete Wishart (Scottish National Party - Perth and North Perthshire)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, when he plans to publish the Government's new Digital Strategy.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
The Government is committed to driving growth in the digital sector and wider economy, and to ensuring that we maximise the benefits of a digital-led economic recovery. We will ensure that the Digital Strategy supports these objectives, both in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic and into the future.
We are continuing to consider the best timeframe for delivering the strategy, in light of the broader national context including the Covid-19 pandemic. We are currently working towards publishing in 2021.
Asked by: Pete Wishart (Scottish National Party - Perth and North Perthshire)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what recent discussions he has had with the commercial music industry on the difficulties of procuring insurance for live music events.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
We are aware of the concerns raised by the music industry about the potential challenges associated with securing insurance for live music events.
Officials have been working closely with the affected sectors to understand the challenges faced. This includes work to build an evidence base on whether there is a clear market failure that demonstrates insurance coverage is the only barrier to live music events taking place.
Asked by: Pete Wishart (Scottish National Party - Perth and North Perthshire)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what plans the Government has to support music businesses in the event that they cannot reopen when the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme ends.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
We appreciate that the Covid-19 pandemic presents a significant challenge to the music sector. As you are aware, the Government has provided unprecedented support for business and workers to protect them against the current economic emergency, including the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS), the Self-Employed Income Support Scheme (SEISS), the Bounceback Loan Scheme and business rates reliefs.
The Chancellor has now announced the Winter Economy Plan to protect jobs and support businesses over the coming months, once the existing SEISS and CJRS come to end. This support includes:
the new Job Support Scheme;
an extension to the Self-Employed Income Support Scheme;
an extension of reduced VAT (from 20% to 5%) on concert tickets to March 2021; and
further concessions on repayment terms, payment deferrals and application windows.
In addition, the Secretary of State provided a major £1.57 billion support package for key cultural organisations to help them through the coronavirus pandemic. This support package will benefit the music sector by providing support to venues and many other organisations to stay open and continue operating.
Asked by: Pete Wishart (Scottish National Party - Perth and North Perthshire)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what recent discussions his Department has had with internet service providers on the continued high search result rankings of secondary ticketing websites on the internet.
Answered by Margot James
We are determined to crackdown on unacceptable behaviour in the online ticketing market and improve fans’ chances of buying tickets at a reasonable price. We recognise that Government can’t act alone in addressing this issue, and that the ticketing industry and online platforms need to take actions themselves. We therefore welcome the announcement by Google requiring ticket resellers to be certified before they can advertise through its AdWords platform, and trust that it will be working to ensure its effectiveness, and that it will take action to enforce compliance with the new rules.
Asked by: Pete Wishart (Scottish National Party - Perth and North Perthshire)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what plans his Department has to ensure that UK musicians can tour the EU after the UK leaves the EU.
Answered by Margot James
The Department is working closely with the music industry to better understand the potential impacts of the UK’s exit from the European Union (EU) on UK musicians being able to tour the EU. .
In addition, we are working closely with the Home Office, HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) and the Department for Exiting the European Union (DExEU) to ensure that they are well informed of these issues.
We want to continue to build on the success of the live music scene and are committed to supporting artists perform across the world to ensure the continued growth of this vital and vibrant sector.