Covid-19: Support for Entertainment and Music Industry Freelancers

Earl of Clancarty Excerpts

Monday 9th November 2020 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Barran (Con)]

Our freelancers are indeed the lifeblood of our creative industries; that is why we are working so hard to get funding to organisations that, in turn, will be employing freelancers. For example, the majority of successful applicants to the Culture Recovery Fund are planning activity to start before March. Our research suggests, however, that not all freelancers who are eligible for support are actually accessing it; we would really encourage them to do so.

[The Earl of Clancarty (CB)]

My Lords, while there are different reasons for musicians falling through the gaps in support, the most common is that less than half of their work comes from self-employment. Will the Minister advise the Treasury that the music sector, and indeed other sectors, would be helped considerably by lowering the threshold of income from self-employment from 50% to 25% and removing the £50,000 cap on earnings when there is no equivalent cap for the CJRS?

[Baroness Barran (Con)]

We understand the important points that the noble Earl has raised and we are keeping these schemes under review. To repeat what I have said, we believe that the key to this is to get people performing as quickly as possible; we have tried to do this both through the exemptions that we have achieved for rehearsals and in the direction of our funding.

Covid-19: Regional Theatres

Earl of Clancarty Excerpts

Monday 28th September 2020 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Barran (Con)]

I thank my noble friend for highlighting the pressures that some extraordinarily talented performers face. We have tried to move as quickly as possible on this. We have already allocated £3.36 million of emergency funding to 135 grass-roots music venues, and we are currently processing over 4,000 applications for over £880 million to the cultural recovery fund.

[The Earl of Clancarty (CB)]

My Lords, surely in these times it is not a coincidence that Dudley Council last week announced the decision to demolish the art deco Dudley Hippodrome, despite the clear desire of the local people to restore the building and maintain it for cultural use. Will the Government look at that decision? More broadly, what guarantees will they give that, with both the effects of Covid and the loosening of planning rules, many of our physical cultural assets—not just theatres but art centres, museums and other venues—will not eventually face a similar fate?

[Baroness Barran (Con)]

My Lords, I am sorry to hear about the fate of the Dudley Hippodrome. However, strategically, this fund has been very much aligned to the fact that we must protect key physical institutions to protect the jobs and creativity that are found there.

Music Industry

Earl of Clancarty Excerpts

Thursday 10th September 2020 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Barran (Con)]

My noble friend makes a very persuasive case for cathedral choirs, and the Government share her enthusiasm and recognition of their important contribution. From 15 August, we reached stage 4 of our road map on the safe reopening of venues, which has allowed choirs, including cathedral choirs, to put on live indoor performances in front of a socially distanced audience. I am pleased to say that yesterday’s announcement about groups of six makes no change to that.

[The Earl of Clancarty (CB)]

My Lords, newly self-employed musicians who started self-employment in the tax year 2019-20 have no financial support under the current measures. This is the younger generation, whom we need to nurture. Can the self-employed scheme be extended to include them?

[Baroness Barran (Con)]

There are no current plans that I am aware of to extend the self-employed scheme to that group, but the £95 million fund announced by Arts Council England is trying to maximise employment opportunities, including for those early in their careers.

Covid-19: Performing Arts

Earl of Clancarty Excerpts

Monday 13th July 2020 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Barran]

My understanding is that the package does include dance companies in particular and touring companies. My noble friend refers to training that I understand is in line with other elite sports, but I am happy to write her to confirm that.

[The Earl of Clancarty (CB) [V]]

My Lords, even with the funding, this could yet be a disaster for the music sector where 90% of the workforce is self-employed. Will the Government extend the self-employed scheme at least until the end of the year? Otherwise, there is the danger that many talented musicians will leave the industry or go abroad.

[Baroness Barran]

I beg to differ with the noble Earl that the scheme is a disaster. It has been welcomed widely by the sector and is recognised as the most generous scheme of its type in Europe. I am not aware of any plans to extend the self-employed scheme.

EU: British Musicians

Earl of Clancarty Excerpts

Wednesday 3rd June 2020 Lords Chamber

Asked by

[The Earl of Clancarty]

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what progress they have made on reaching a reciprocal agreement with the European Union to enable British musicians to tour and play in Europe following the end of the transition period.

The Question was considered in a Virtual Proceeding via video call.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (Baroness Barran) (Con)]

The Government recognise the importance to musicians of the continued ability to tour, for both artistic and economic reasons. We are open to negotiating reciprocal arrangements to facilitate this. A reciprocal arrangement based on best precedent will mean that UK citizens will be able to undertake some business activities in the EU without a work permit on a short-term basis. The details, including the range of activities, the documentation needed and the time limit, will be negotiated.

[The Earl of Clancarty (CB)]

Touring and playing in Europe are essential aspects of the livelihoods of UK musicians, as well as being vital culturally. A hard Brexit would be devastating for an industry worth £5.2 billion, without even taking into account the destructive effect that Covid is already having on musicians’ incomes. Do the Government recognise that it is therefore crucial that they negotiate a mobility framework advantageous to British musicians, including an EU-wide multi-entry touring visa valid for two years, and that this framework needs to be in place before the end of the transition period?

[Baroness Barran]

We absolutely recognise that musicians, and the performing arts more broadly, are a crucial part of our culture and our economy. We are working towards a reciprocal arrangement for a touring visa based on best precedent, so that UK musicians could work short term within the EU. However, we do not currently believe that a touring visa, such as the noble Earl suggests, is legally possible.

Covid-19: Museums, Galleries and Historic Buildings

Earl of Clancarty Excerpts

Thursday 21st May 2020 Lords Chamber

[The Earl of Clancarty (CB)]

Museums and the arts more generally are in an extremely precarious position financially. After 10 years of cuts, including to local authorities, the reserve tanks are close to empty. Theatre producer Sonia Friedman, writing in the Telegraph today, says that 70% of performing arts companies will fold unless the Government intervene. Small private museums are among those particularly exposed without income from ticket revenue. Arts and heritage urgently need the kind of emergency large-scale rescue package of new money that Germany rapidly put in place. Museums and other venues were the first to close and will be the last to fully open. We must extend furloughing and self-employed schemes, but still lack one for those who pay themselves through dividends, including museum freelancers such as conservators.

On a different note, I suggest to the Minister that, when museums open, if access is to be limited, the first people to visit should be schoolchildren. They would have a wonderful memory of visiting museums without adults being allowed to do so. It could be the Year of the Children’s Museums.

BBC and Public Service Broadcasting

Earl of Clancarty Excerpts

Thursday 5th March 2020 Lords Chamber

[The Earl of Clancarty (CB)]

My Lords, the noble Lord, Lord Young, has tabled an important and timely debate. I start with a quote from a recent Radio 4 interview with the media analyst Claire Enders, who said:

“The BBC … has a civic purpose. Netflix does not”.


This is the primary distinguishing characteristic of the BBC, implicit in its original mission statement. The BBC provides a public space for public debate through informing, through education, through the arts and entertainment. Other public broadcasters and the more commercial channels do some of this, but those who believe there should be a more level playing field misunderstand the nature of the relationship between the BBC and other services, including the video-on-demand services. As a purely non-commercial service, the BBC keeps the others honest and has done so for many decades, through being able to focus entirely on the notion of quality and now, globally, on areas other than world news. This is less a marketplace and more a richly productive ecosystem. The Government should not forget the considerable soft power that accrues from the BBC’s place in this ecosystem.

Mistakes are made. I point to a recent one: the Government have taken a leaf straight out of the Trump playbook in effectively no-platforming the public broadcasters, including the “Today” programme. They would rather continue to campaign to stay in power through social media, including Twitter, than debate the issues of the day through broadcasters. This is deeply insulting to the public. In my view, “Today” should have responded immediately by interviewing shadow Secretaries of State and effectively empty-chairing the relevant Ministers. The Government would have changed their tune fairly quickly, but this is a minor quibble in the scheme of things. “Today” will now have Times Radio on its tail, although I am sure that the BBC will rise to this challenge boldly.

“Core values” as a term applied to the BBC makes me uneasy, since it suggests that you can strip back to the core. A diminished BBC would be a blander BBC and make us a considerably poorer country. The BBC echoes the wider values of society because, at its best, it speaks to and for everyone by virtue of it being a public platform. This is true even if it is left to individuals to pay for the licence fee, rather than everyone doing so through their taxes. The BBC’s ethos informs all parts of its output. There is immense value still in a commercial-free zone, including for young children. It is a choice that viewers and listeners ought to have the right to.

I am not certain that the public are properly aware of what the licence fee continues to provide, although I am sure we will hear much of this today. It should be food for thought: a nexus of broadcasting; original programming—although this should be proportionately more, in my view; creative development; events and festivals; orchestras and choirs; and much more. These are aspects of a unique culture which most people will access or be a part of, even if, at a particular time in their lives, they are not always tuning in. A recent poll shows that 79% of the public would like the Government to continue to pay for the over-75s but, if we lost the licence fee or—more to the point—the moneys that the licence fee brings, we would not have this unique and extraordinary service, which continues to be a huge creative force and a force for good in not only this country, but the world.

Arts and Cultural Services

Earl of Clancarty Excerpts

Tuesday 3rd March 2020 Lords Chamber

Asked by

[The Earl of Clancarty]

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what steps they are taking to improve the provision of arts and cultural services at (1) local, and (2) regional, level.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (Baroness Barran) (Con)]

My Lords, the Government have committed to supporting our vital cultural and creative sectors across the country. In October 2019, we announced a new £250 million cultural investment fund—the largest ever single investment in regional cultural infrastructure, local museums and neighbourhood libraries. DCMS’s arm’s-length body, Arts Council England, invests more than £600 million in arts and culture each year. It is spending more outside London than ever before, particularly targeting places where cultural engagement is low.

[The Earl of Clancarty (CB)]

My Lords, arts and cultural services have been among the first to go as a result of the Government’s policy of austerity, with £400 million cut from local authority spending for England alone since 2011, according to the County Councils Network. Museums have been squeezed, libraries have closed and there has been a significant decrease in serious theatre production originating outside London. Does the Minister not agree that local authority funding remains the most effective means of day-to-day maintenance of the arts? The future will be bleak if the Government do not reverse the cuts. Will they do so? The regions deserve better.

[Baroness Barran]

The noble Earl is obviously right to reflect on the challenging funding environments faced by local authorities over the past few years, but he will be aware that local authorities across England will see a 4.4% increase—£2.9 billion in real terms—in their core spending power in 2020. Local authorities are extremely well placed to decide how to prioritise their spending. We are clear that expenditure on arts and culture is one of the best decisions that local authorities can make.

Victorian Mills

Earl of Clancarty Excerpts

Tuesday 11th February 2020 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Barran]

My noble friend raises a point about how previous usage impacts on the ability to regenerate. This is true across a range of historic and industrial heritage buildings, not just mills. Again, Historic England can provide a lot of expertise in this area, but I am aware that this is a matter of concern. Sadly, as a result of arson, in the last decade there have been more than 100 fires in the Bradford mills close to my noble friend’s home, but we are working with the fire and rescue services to address this.

[The Earl of Clancarty (CB)]

My Lords, will the Government replace the money we have received up to now from the EU for heritage projects, without which mill conversions will be significantly more difficult?

[Baroness Barran]

The details on that are not yet fully worked out but the noble Earl will be aware of the shared prosperity fund which is looking to address a number of areas of previous EU funding.

Museums and Galleries: Financial Sustainability

Earl of Clancarty Excerpts

Tuesday 8th October 2019 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Barran]

I had not thought about it in quite the same way as the noble Lord, although when I go to a museum with my children I spend quite a lot of time trying to stop them taking photographs of the pictures. I am not sure about selfies, but more seriously, I am happy to take his suggestion back to my colleague in the department.

[The Earl of Clancarty (CB)]

My Lords, we reap considerable financial and cultural rewards from what is a modest state investment in our national museums, but would not the Minister admit that museums cannot continue to be shackled by association with fossil fuel companies? It would be a sign of the Government’s seriousness about addressing climate change if they pledged to cover the shortfall in funding when museums, as is inevitable, drop that sponsorship. Will the Government do so?

[Baroness Barran]

The noble Lord will be aware that museums act as arm’s-length bodies. Therefore, it is up to the trustees of each museum to scrutinise potential donors and make their own judgments on this.