Wednesday 20th June 2018

(6 years, 4 months ago)

Lords Chamber
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Lord Henley Portrait Lord Henley
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My Lords, as I made clear, the negotiations continue. The noble Lord will have to be patient.

Earl of Clancarty Portrait The Earl of Clancarty (CB)
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My Lords, the Minister should be aware, as the DCMS is, that the creative sector has a number of wide-ranging concerns over Brexit, not least those facing freelancers, who make up a significant proportion of the creative industries and IT. What assurances can the Government give to the self-employed, including those running businesses with clients in Europe? They have a real concern that that work will be lost due to reduced access and increased red tape if we do not remain in the single market.

Lord Henley Portrait Lord Henley
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My Lords, I am not going to rehearse all the arguments that we might debate later or on other occasions about the single market or whatever. I have to make it clear to the noble Earl that the negotiations continue. As I said, we have a pretty good intellectual property regime, but there are areas where we need to get things right. We will pursue that in the negotiations.