Asked by: Julian Sturdy (Conservative - York Outer)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, with reference to the consultation entitled the UK’s future exhaustion of intellectual property rights regime, published by the Intellectual Property Office on 21 July 2021, what impact assessment his Department has conducted of the potential effect on the (a) UK publishing industry and (b) UK authors of the potential introduction of an international exhaustion framework for copyright.
Answered by Amanda Solloway - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
The consultation on the UK’s future exhaustion of intellectual property rights regime is open and the Government welcomes all interested parties to contribute to the consultation prior to the closing date of 31 August. An impact assessment was published alongside the consultation which will be updated.
Asked by: Julian Sturdy (Conservative - York Outer)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, if his Department will take steps to ensure that the concerns of authors are included in his Department’s work on the UK’s future regime for the exhaustion of intellectual property rights, after the closure of the current open consultation.
Answered by Amanda Solloway - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
Officials at the Intellectual Property Office (an executive agency of the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy), which is responsible for policy development on the UK’s IP exhaustion regime have met with representatives of the UK book industry, including authors, to discuss the issues arising from this open consultation.
Asked by: Patrick Grady (Scottish National Party - Glasgow North)
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 protecting UK author income as part of his Department's review of the future of the exhaustion of intellectual property rights regime.
Answered by Amanda Solloway - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
The Government is currently consulting on the options for the UK’s future exhaustion of intellectual property rights regime. Once the consultation has concluded, the Government will then assess evidence provided during the ongoing policy development process and consultation so that a decision may be made.
The Government welcomes all interested parties to contribute to the consultation.
Asked by: Patrick Grady (Scottish National Party - Glasgow North)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what discussions he has had with representatives of the Society of Authors on the future of the exhaustion of intellectual property rights regime.
Answered by Amanda Solloway - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
The Intellectual Property Office (an executive agency of the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy) who are responsible for the exhaustion regime has not yet specifically met with the Society of Authors on this matter. The Government has engaged with stakeholders across the publishing sector and continues to do so as part of the public consultation on the UK’s future exhaustion of intellectual property rights regime.
The Government welcomes views from businesses and consumers and encourages interested parties to respond to the consultation document.
Asked by: Baroness Lister of Burtersett (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the report by the All Party Parliamentary Writers Group Supporting Writers through the COVID-19 Crisis, published on 11 May, what plans they have to engage with writers’ organisations to discuss the recommendations relating to maintaining diversity of talent in the creative industries following the COVID-19 pandemic.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Literature contributes greatly to the richness and diversity of our cultural environment, and we welcome the report by the All Party Parliamentary Writers Group.
The government is clear that it expects the cultural sectors to represent our diverse society in their artistic talent, workforce and audiences. As the national development agency for art and culture, Arts Council England (ACE) has a responsibility to ensure that public money benefits all of the public.
ACE supports a network of Writer Development Agents, which between them cover every one of the five regions in which ACE operates, all of which have an explicit remit to support writers that represent the diversity of our country. ACE has also focused additional funding on organisations whose work promotes diversity, most prominently via an Ambition for Excellence award to The Good Literary Agency, based in Bristol, which develops and then markets authors from Black and minority ethnic backgrounds, and via our support of a pair of reports (by BookTrust and the Centre for Literacy in Primary Education) into the diversity and inclusivity of the children’s literature sector.
We hope that this ongoing support and engagement will help to nurture the next generation of writers to build on the success of today’s sector.
Asked by: Sarah Olney (Liberal Democrat - Richmond Park)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what steps the Government is taking to support professional writers.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
A thriving UK publishing industry is crucial to support the development of professional writers. We know that the Covid-19 pandemic presents a significant challenge to the publishing industry. The Government’s response has been one of the most generous and comprehensive in the world, including the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme, the Self-Employed Income Support Scheme and the Bounceback Loan Scheme and business rates reliefs. The publishing sector has also benefited from the government's introduction of a zero rate of VAT to e-publications, which will make it clear e-publications are entitled to the same VAT treatment as their physical counterparts.
In terms of direct support for authors, Arts Council England’s (ACE) ‘time-to-write’ grants are a vital source of funding that allow authors to dedicate time to the completion of manuscripts. Authors also receive support via ACE's Developing Your Creative Practice Fund, which was designed with the expectation that writers would be among the beneficiaries.
In addition, over the course of the pandemic, ACE contributed £400,000 to the Society of Authors’ ‘Authors Emergency Fund’, in order to ensure that authors whose income had been decimated by the pandemic were able to remain active in their discipline.
The Government also maintains a strong legal framework to protect the rights and interests of writers, including through copyright and the Public Lending Right.
Asked by: Alex Cunningham (Labour - Stockton North)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, pursuant to the Answer of 15 March 2021 to Question 166405, how many and what proportion of young adults aged 18 to 25 years sentenced to life imprisonment received (a) a pre-sentence report, (b) a maturity assessment alongside a pre-sentence report and (c) an assessment for neuro-disabilities alongside a pre-sentence report in the most recent period for which that information can be collated at proportionate cost.
Answered by Alex Chalk - Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice
The National Probation Service (NPS) views maturity assessments as a critical component of an offender assessment within a Pre-Sentence Report (PSR) as articulated in Probation Instruction 04/2016: Determining PSR.
The NPS has produced maturity guidance to support PSR writers which highlights how to identify low maturity, particularly for young adults aged 18-25 years old. It also provides examples of how report writers can communicate with courts about maturity, offending and sentencing proposals.
Between July to September 2020, there were two cases of young adults aged 18 to 25 sentenced to life imprisonment who received a pre-sentence report in England and Wales.
It is not possible to give figures for the proportion of young adults aged 18 to 25 sentenced to life imprisonment who received a pre-sentence report, as this would involve a process of matching court record data with probation data and the cost of doing so would be disproportionate.
Due to the disclosure risk regarding the identification of certain attributes about a data subject that may not otherwise have been known, figures cannot be provided on the number of cases where an assessment for neuro-disabilities or maturity has been conducted.
Asked by: Lilian Greenwood (Labour - Nottingham South)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether Clause 164 of the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill would allow deaf people who need Speech to Text Reporting within the deliberation room to undertake jury service.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
Individuals with hearing impairments currently have access to Induction Loop Systems and those who are able to lip read can and do serve as jurors. They also have access to shorthand writers who transcribe the proceedings in court. While Speech to Text Reporters (STTR) may be suitable for transcribing court proceedings, they are not considered an effective option to enable jurors to converse and engage with other jurors and fully participate in deliberations.
Clause 164 in the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill has therefore been drafted to enable only British Sign Language (BSL) interpreters to be present in the jury deliberation room. We have also considered speech to text transcription using AI technology as an additional support which would not require a change in the law. However, the technology is not yet sufficiently advanced to accurately transcribe a real time written account of jury deliberations and enable a deaf juror to fully engage in discussions. We will continue to keep this under review as the technology develops.
Asked by: Lilian Greenwood (Labour - Nottingham South)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what adjustments do HM Courts and Tribunal Service offer to deaf jurors who need speech to text reporting within a deliberation room.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
Individuals with hearing impairments currently have access to Induction Loop Systems and those who are able to lip read can and do serve as jurors. They also have access to shorthand writers who transcribe the proceedings in court. While Speech to Text Reporters (STTR) may be suitable for transcribing court proceedings, they are not considered an effective option to enable jurors to converse and engage with other jurors and fully participate in deliberations.
Clause 164 in the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill has therefore been drafted to enable only British Sign Language (BSL) interpreters to be present in the jury deliberation room. We have also considered speech to text transcription using AI technology as an additional support which would not require a change in the law. However, the technology is not yet sufficiently advanced to accurately transcribe a real time written account of jury deliberations and enable a deaf juror to fully engage in discussions. We will continue to keep this under review as the technology develops.
Asked by: Alex Cunningham (Labour - Stockton North)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment he has made of the level of (a) awareness and (b) understanding among magistrates of the effect of maturity on offending behaviour.
Answered by Alex Chalk - Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice
Although maturity is not assessed by Liaison and Diversion services, the National Probation Service (NPS) views maturity assessments as a critical component of an offender assessment within a Pre Sentence Report (PSR) as articulated in Probation Instruction 04/2016: Determining PSR.
In addition, the NPS are working with the Magistrates’ Association to develop a suite of short videos regarding the need to consider maturity at each step in the Criminal Justice System to raise sentencers awareness and understanding of the effect of maturity on offending. This is targeted at the Judiciary, Crown Prosecution Service, Defence and Probation staff in Court.
The NPS has also produced guidance to support court report writers, which highlights how to make more effective sentencing proposals to support those with low maturity to engage more effectively in community disposals.
Sentencing guidelines developed by the independent Sentencing Council also list ‘age and/or lack of maturity’ as a mitigating factor which sentencers can take into account when deciding on an appropriate sentence. This is also reflected in the Equal Treatment Bench Book (published February 2021) the main source of guidance for sentencers for dealing with individuals with protected characteristics. The Judicial College also provides magistrates with training on offender maturity as part of its modules on sentencing guidelines.
The NPS are also working to ensure that court staff have a clear understanding of both the impact of low maturity on offending behaviour and the consequences of disrupted maturity on recidivism. A training video has been produced by the Evidence Based Practice Team in the NPS, outlining the indicators and the means of assessment of maturity for those aged 18 – 25.