Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, if he will publish a response to Early Day Motion 718 on Audio-visual performers' rights.

Actors and other audiovisual performers enrich our lives and our culture and make an important contribution to our economy. The United Kingdom’s high standards of intellectual property protection include protections for audiovisual performers which reflect this contribution and allow them to be rewarded for it. These include economic rights in audiovisual performances which are consistent with those set out in the Beijing Treaty.

The United Kingdom is a signatory to the Beijing Treaty. However, while it was a Member State of the European Union, it was unable to proceed towards ratification by itself. Now that the UK has left the European Union, we are able to consider ratification as part of our future domestic and international policy agendas.

However, the Treaty contains certain optional provisions, which may be implemented in different ways. Before taking steps to ratify the treaty, these and other elements would need to be fully considered and their impacts assessed. This would include consultations with interested parties to best ensure that the most appropriate decisions are made for the United Kingdom’s creative industries and audiovisual performers in particular.