Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they plan to take to address copyright infringement on online platforms.

The UK Government takes the issue of IP infringement seriously and is working with industry and enforcement agencies on a number of initiatives to tackle this problem.

In September 2013 we launched a dedicated online IP crime unit, run by the City of London Police – Police Intellectual Property Crime Unit (PIPCU). It is dedicated to tackling serious and organised online piracy and counterfeiting (affecting digital and physical goods) and protecting legitimate UK businesses. IPO provided funding of around £9 million over the period 2013-2019.

Furthermore in March 2018 the Government published the Creative Industry Sector Deal. As part of this deal the Government committed to work with rights holders and platforms to develop new voluntary agreements, to tackle IP infringement on online platforms.