Asked by: Lord Godson (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they will place in the Library of the House a copy of the different presentations given to civil servants on the Issues in Countering Terrorism course by the Centre for Defence Studies at King's College London, redacted as necessary for national security and public safety.
Answered by Lord Benyon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The FCDO does not own the Intellectual Property Rights for the presentations given on the course and cannot place them in the Library of the House.
Asked by: Justin Tomlinson (Conservative - North Swindon)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, how many games studios have been supported by the UK Games Fund since its inception.
Answered by Julia Lopez - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The UK Games Fund supports the development of new intellectual property (IP) and graduate talent.
The UK Games Fund has provided 308 grants supporting the development of new games IP from UK studios. This includes grants for 27 studios that participated in Tranzfuser, and four studios that participated in the residential programme DunDev. It does not include grants from the new £5 million Content Fund which was launched in September 2023.
Asked by: Andrew Rosindell (Conservative - Romford)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what steps she has taken with Cabinet colleagues to (a) tackle the sale of fake designer goods and (b) seize the proceeds of of such sales.
Answered by Saqib Bhatti - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The UK has strong measures in place to address IP crime and infringement, co-ordinated by the Intellectual Property Office. It works with the Police IP Crime Unit, Trading Standards, and Regional Organised Crime Units among others to tackle the sale of fake designer goods. Wilful trade mark counterfeiting and copyright piracy on a commercial scale are criminal offences and the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 provides powers to seize assets derived from such criminal activity. A recent operation between IPO, City of London Police, Trading Standards and industry representatives at Camden High Street resulted in the seizure of fake designer bracelets worth £400,000.
Asked by: Ruth Cadbury (Labour - Brentford and Isleworth)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what assessment she has made of the adequacy of the support for victims of intellectual property theft provided by Action Fraud.
Answered by Saqib Bhatti - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
In 2023 the Government published a Fraud Strategy, setting out plans to reduce fraud by 10% by December 2024.
Action Fraud is the UK’s national information and reporting centre for fraud and financially motivated internet crime, including intellectual property theft. As part of the national fraud strategy, the government is committed to replacing Action Fraud with a new state-of-the-art reporting service, making it easier for victims to report crime, and for law enforcement to take action on victims’ reports.
Asked by: Ruth Cadbury (Labour - Brentford and Isleworth)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether his Department has taken steps to support victims of intellectual property theft.
Answered by Laura Farris - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Ministry of Justice) (jointly with Home Office)
We recognise the importance of victims having access to the support they may need to cope and recover from the impact of crime. The Ministry of Justice (MOJ) provides Police and Crime Commissioners (PCCs) with grant funding to commission victim support services for victims of all crime types. The Government is quadrupling funding for these services by 2024/25, up from £41 million in 2009/10. This includes a range of services commissioned locally for all victims of crime, including victims of fraud, based on assessments of need. PCCs are best placed to understand their local communities and providers, and to commission appropriate support to meet that need.
This is in addition to the support provided by the Action Fraud National Economic Crime Victim Care Unit (NECVCU), which is a focussed and targeted service providing victims of fraud and cyber-crime, with not only a consistent and high-quality response, but also a national standard of care and support. NECVCU is supporting all 43 forces in England and Wales at Level 1 (non-vulnerable victim care) and 38 forces at the enhanced Level 2 service. Since its inception in 2018, NECVCU has supported 403,432 (vulnerable or non-vulnerable) victims of fraud and prevented £2,882,616 being lost to fraud.
The Government is also taking steps to reduce intellectual property infringement and support the enforcement of intellectual property rights through the Intellectual Property Office (IPO). In February 2022, the IPO published its 5-year Intellectual Property Counter Infringement Strategy, which focuses on getting the right structures and processes needed to work together more effectively at home and internationally, to better understand the full threat and impact of intellectual property crime and infringement.
Asked by: Kirsten Oswald (Scottish National Party - East Renfrewshire)
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 potential merits of bringing forward legislative proposals to prevent the unauthorised use of creative content by AI.
Answered by Julia Lopez - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The UK has world-leading protections for copyright and intellectual property, and we are committed to maintaining them. We want rights holders to be assured that AI firms will use their content appropriately and lawfully. The Intellectual Property Office has been working with rights holders and AI firms to clarify the relationship between AI and copyrighted works. An update on this work will be published in due course.
Asked by: Kevin Brennan (Labour - Cardiff West)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, whether she has made an assessment of the impact of private copy levy schemes on the creative sector in the European Union.
Answered by Saqib Bhatti - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The Government has made no recent assessment of the impact of private copy levy schemes on the creative sector in the European Union.
The 3rd Trade Specialised Committee on Intellectual Property under the EU-UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement discussed Private Copying Levies on 23 October 2023 and the Minutes were published on gov.uk here.
Asked by: Ian Paisley (Democratic Unionist Party - North Antrim)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to the report The Strategic Dependence of UK Universities on China, published by Civitas on 2 November 2023, whether her Department is taking steps to help reduce the proportion of funding universities receive from China.
Answered by Robert Halfon
The Integrated Review Refresh, which this government published in March 2023, sets out in clear terms the UK’s policy towards China.
The UK is a world-leading destination for foreign students, including from China, where they add to the academic richness of UK universities. However, a key part of the International Education Strategy is diversification. Universities must ensure they have appropriate processes in place to manage the risks associated with dependence on a single source of funding, whether that is from a single organisation or a single country. The Office for Students (OfS), the regulator of higher education in England, monitors the risk of over-reliance on overseas income at a sector level.
The department recognises concerns about overseas interference in the higher education sector and regularly assess the risks facing academia. The department has acted to remove government funding from Confucius Institutes in the UK. The department will continue to take steps to significantly strengthen the UK’s protections from overseas interference in our higher education sector, helping to safeguard intellectual property and sensitive research.
The Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Act 2023 will introduce increased transparency and the monitoring of certain overseas funding received by higher education providers in England. The protection of individuals’ rights, freedoms, and safety in the UK is taken very seriously. Attempts by foreign powers to intimidate, harass or harm individuals or communities in the UK will not be tolerated.
The department has committed, in the Integrated Review Refresh, to review the full set of legislative and other provisions designed to protect the academic sector, in order to identify what more can be or should be done.
Asked by: Ian Paisley (Democratic Unionist Party - North Antrim)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment her Department has made of the implication for her policies of the proportion of funding from China for universities; and what guidance she issues to universities on sources of funding other than China.
Answered by Robert Halfon
The Integrated Review Refresh, which this government published in March 2023, sets out in clear terms the UK’s policy towards China.
The UK is a world-leading destination for foreign students, including from China, where they add to the academic richness of UK universities. However, a key part of the International Education Strategy is diversification. Universities must ensure they have appropriate processes in place to manage the risks associated with dependence on a single source of funding, whether that is from a single organisation or a single country. The Office for Students (OfS), the regulator of higher education in England, monitors the risk of over-reliance on overseas income at a sector level.
The department recognises concerns about overseas interference in the higher education sector and regularly assess the risks facing academia. The department has acted to remove government funding from Confucius Institutes in the UK. The department will continue to take steps to significantly strengthen the UK’s protections from overseas interference in our higher education sector, helping to safeguard intellectual property and sensitive research.
The Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Act 2023 will introduce increased transparency and the monitoring of certain overseas funding received by higher education providers in England. The protection of individuals’ rights, freedoms, and safety in the UK is taken very seriously. Attempts by foreign powers to intimidate, harass or harm individuals or communities in the UK will not be tolerated.
The department has committed, in the Integrated Review Refresh, to review the full set of legislative and other provisions designed to protect the academic sector, in order to identify what more can be or should be done.
Asked by: Ian Paisley (Democratic Unionist Party - North Antrim)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether her Department has made an assessment of the potential impact of the proportion of funding for universities from China on (a) academic freedoms and (b) student welfare.
Answered by Robert Halfon
The Integrated Review Refresh, which this government published in March 2023, sets out in clear terms the UK’s policy towards China.
The UK is a world-leading destination for foreign students, including from China, where they add to the academic richness of UK universities. However, a key part of the International Education Strategy is diversification. Universities must ensure they have appropriate processes in place to manage the risks associated with dependence on a single source of funding, whether that is from a single organisation or a single country. The Office for Students (OfS), the regulator of higher education in England, monitors the risk of over-reliance on overseas income at a sector level.
The department recognises concerns about overseas interference in the higher education sector and regularly assess the risks facing academia. The department has acted to remove government funding from Confucius Institutes in the UK. The department will continue to take steps to significantly strengthen the UK’s protections from overseas interference in our higher education sector, helping to safeguard intellectual property and sensitive research.
The Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Act 2023 will introduce increased transparency and the monitoring of certain overseas funding received by higher education providers in England. The protection of individuals’ rights, freedoms, and safety in the UK is taken very seriously. Attempts by foreign powers to intimidate, harass or harm individuals or communities in the UK will not be tolerated.
The department has committed, in the Integrated Review Refresh, to review the full set of legislative and other provisions designed to protect the academic sector, in order to identify what more can be or should be done.