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 Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether he is taking steps to clear the driving test backlog and reduce test waiting times, particularly in rural areas.
Answered by Lucy Frazer - Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
The Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) operates a 24-week booking window for car tests and there are test slots available within this window.
Driver testing services were significantly disrupted during the pandemic, which has led to a high demand for learners who are now wanting to take their driving test. The DVSA is working hard to provide as many practical driving test appointments as it can and has a number of measures in place to do this. These include offering a national recovery allowance and annual leave buy back to examiners, asking all those qualified to conduct tests, but who do not do so as part of their current day job, to return to conducting tests, conducting out of hours testing (such as on public holidays and weekends), and resuming the number of driving tests per day to seven for each full-time examiner.
The DVSA is also recruiting more than 300 driving examiners across Great Britain. The DVSA’s examiner recruitment campaigns continue to be successful but, like many employers, it is finding the job market extremely competitive. As it moves through each recruitment campaign, the DVSA will continually review and make changes and improvements to its recruitment and selection process, and training courses.
To reduce the number of driving tests that go to waste, the DVSA has introduced a text messaging service to remind candidates about their test and has also launched a ‘Ready to Pass?’ campaign to improve learners’ understanding of what it means to be test ready and how they can assess their readiness.
Asked by: Pete Wishart (Scottish National Party - Perth and North Perthshire)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, in the context of the driving test backlog, if he will take steps to increase the number of driving test slots available, particularly in rural areas.
Answered by Lucy Frazer - Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
The Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) operates a 24-week booking window for car tests and there are test slots available within this window.
Driver testing services were significantly disrupted during the pandemic, which has led to a high demand for learners who are now wanting to take their driving test. The DVSA is working hard to provide as many practical driving test appointments as it can and has a number of measures in place to do this. These include offering a national recovery allowance and annual leave buy back to examiners, asking all those qualified to conduct tests, but who do not do so as part of their current day job, to return to conducting tests, conducting out of hours testing (such as on public holidays and weekends), and resuming the number of driving tests per day to seven for each full-time examiner.
The DVSA is also recruiting more than 300 driving examiners across Great Britain. The DVSA’s examiner recruitment campaigns continue to be successful but, like many employers, it is finding the job market extremely competitive. As it moves through each recruitment campaign, the DVSA will continually review and make changes and improvements to its recruitment and selection process, and training courses.
To reduce the number of driving tests that go to waste, the DVSA has introduced a text messaging service to remind candidates about their test and has also launched a ‘Ready to Pass?’ campaign to improve learners’ understanding of what it means to be test ready and how they can assess their readiness.
Asked by: Pete Wishart (Scottish National Party - Perth and North Perthshire)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what assessment his Department has made of the financial impact on the UK audio-visual sector of his decision to expand the text and data mining exception.
Answered by Jane Hunt
The Government asked specific questions about impact in the consultation on AI and IP, but received very limited quantitative evidence. An impact assessment will be published alongside the legislation when laid. The proposed exception will be targeted to limit negative impacts, and the government welcomes further evidence from rights holders on how to best achieve this.
Asked by: Pete Wishart (Scottish National Party - Perth and North Perthshire)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how much revenue has been raised from the Duty Stamps Scheme since the introduction of that scheme.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Duty stamps do not raise revenue, they are an anti-fraud measure that have helped secure the alcohol supply chain, making it more difficult for illicit products to infiltrate the market. HMRC’s tax gap estimate indicates that such measures are successfully keeping spirit’s fraud at historically low levels.
The Government is keen to support innovation in the alcohol sector. That is why, at Budget 2020, we announced plans to review alcohol duty with the aim of improving the current system to make it simpler, more economically rational and less administratively burdensome.
Following a Call for Evidence launched in October 2020, the Government is currently considering the responses. While scope of this review does not include duty stamps, HM Revenue and Customs will review the duty stamps policy when any changes to the alcohol regime have been developed.
Asked by: Pete Wishart (Scottish National Party - Perth and North Perthshire)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether he plans to review the application of duty stamps on Scotch whisky and spirits.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Duty stamps do not raise revenue, they are an anti-fraud measure that have helped secure the alcohol supply chain, making it more difficult for illicit products to infiltrate the market. HMRC’s tax gap estimate indicates that such measures are successfully keeping spirit’s fraud at historically low levels.
The Government is keen to support innovation in the alcohol sector. That is why, at Budget 2020, we announced plans to review alcohol duty with the aim of improving the current system to make it simpler, more economically rational and less administratively burdensome.
Following a Call for Evidence launched in October 2020, the Government is currently considering the responses. While scope of this review does not include duty stamps, HM Revenue and Customs will review the duty stamps policy when any changes to the alcohol regime have been developed.
Asked by: Pete Wishart (Scottish National Party - Perth and North Perthshire)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many instances of sprits and duty fraud have been successfully prosecuted since the introduction of the Duty Stamps Scheme.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
HMRC regularly publishes alcohol fraud prosecution data on the GOV.UK website. The most recent publication (Tackling alcohol smuggling: outputs – April 2016 to April 2019) shows that during the period April 2016 and March 2019 HMRC conducted 33 arrests with 25 convictions for offences relating to alcohol fraud. Figures for the periods since April 2019 will be published in due course.
Asked by: Pete Wishart (Scottish National Party - Perth and North Perthshire)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, whether he has had recent discussions with representatives from the EU to understand whether the simultaneous disclosure of unregistered designs in the UK and EU would provide protection for those designs in the UK and EU.
Answered by Amanda Solloway - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
The UK sought an agreement with the EU on reciprocal disclosure for unregistered designs. This would have been beneficial to UK design businesses. However, the
EU decided to pass up the opportunity to conclude such mutually beneficial text, which is disappointing. There are no plans to revisit this issue with our EU partners.
However, the Government recognises that this an important issue for UK designers and will consider it in our future work on the UK designs system.
Asked by: Pete Wishart (Scottish National Party - Perth and North Perthshire)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of raising the Intellectual Property Enterprise Court Small Claims Track Cap to £25,000 in line with a Fast-Track claim.
Answered by Amanda Solloway - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
As part of its work on IP enforcement issues the IPO has facilitated a series of working groups over the last year looking at the enforcement framework. The cost and accessibility of court processes for IP disputes was considered as part of this review, and questions on these topics were included in the call for views which closed in November this year. The IPO is currently considering the responses received from that exercise and will carry out further assessment as necessary before any recommendations are taken forwards.