Music Festivals: Covid-19-related Cancellations

Lord Grade of Yarmouth Excerpts

Tuesday 27th April 2021 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Barran (Con)]

The Government have been very clear in acknowledging the multiple challenges that my noble friend has outlined. That is why we have announced major funding for the sector, particularly through the Culture Recovery Fund and, most recently, in the expansion of the self-employed income support scheme. We continue to work closely with the sector to ensure that we can respond as needed.

[Lord Grade of Yarmouth (Con) [V]]

I declare my interest as a theatre producer and as chair of a leading live entertainment marketing company. The theatre sector—certainly the whole of the commercial sector—depends to a large extent on angels investing. Angels have always invested on the basis that a show can get business interruption insurance. I do not understand, and I wonder whether the Minister could explain, why the Government cannot prevail on insurance companies to do what their business is, which is to insure people. There may be an additional cost, but it seems to me that the problem lies with the insurance companies, not the Government.

[Baroness Barran (Con)]

I do not think this is about pointing a finger in one direction or another. We are trying to find a solution to this issue and are working with all the key stakeholders to do so.

Football: European Super League

Lord Grade of Yarmouth Excerpts

Tuesday 20th April 2021 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Barran (Con)]

It will be up to the football authorities in the first instance to determine how to deal with this proposal but, as I have made clear, they have our full backing.

[Lord Grade of Yarmouth (Con) [V]]

My forecast on the outcome of the Super League proposal will be some resolution through the courts, not the legislatures. The last time the courts were involved in football governance we ended up with the Bosman ruling, which just created more and more millionaire players and their agents, which was hardly in the public interest. Do this Government accept that they may well be powerless to intervene when my learned friends on both sides of the channel start to challenge the cartels that run football on behalf of the Super League?

[Baroness Barran (Con)]

I hope that my noble friend’s prediction about a resolution in the courts is wrong, because that implies a long and drawn-out process. As I have said, the Government are exploring all options to prevent this proposal, and we will continue to work with the football authorities and our counterparts across Europe to achieve this.

Video-sharing Platforms: BBFC Ratings

Lord Grade of Yarmouth Excerpts

Thursday 4th March 2021 Lords Chamber

Asked by

[Lord Grade of Yarmouth]

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what plans they have to mandate the use of British Board of Film Classifications ratings for user-generated content on video sharing platforms.

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

My Lords, the British Board of Film Classification’s age ratings are currently used by a number of video-on-demand providers. Although adoption is voluntary, we welcome their use. The video-sharing platform regime, for which Ofcom is the regulator, came into force on 1 November 2020. UK-established video-sharing platforms must now take appropriate measures to protect the public, including minors, from illegal and harmful material. Video-sharing platforms may adopt age ratings as an appropriate measure; however, they are not obliged to do so.

[Lord Grade of Yarmouth (Con) [V]]

I thank my noble friend the Minister for that reply, but there is a wider issue with BBFC certification. The recently launched Disney streaming service ran a documentary originally certificated by the BBFC as suitable for those aged 18 and over. Disney chose to self-certificate it as suitable for 12 and over. Believe me, some scenes in that documentary were truly horrific. To protect children, will the Government, as a matter of urgency, bang heads together and get every streaming service to sign up to the BBFC system, which is tried and trusted?

[Baroness Barran (Con)]

I agree with my noble friend’s last remark about this system being trusted. The Government have great trust in the BBFC’s best-practice age ratings. On his suggestion that we bang heads together, we aim to approach things more gently, but we are actively engaging with the industry to encourage other platforms to adopt the BBFC’s ratings across all their content, and will keep the evidence for legislation in this area under review.

Gambling and Lotteries

Lord Grade of Yarmouth Excerpts

Monday 14th December 2020 Lords Chamber

[Lord Grade of Yarmouth (Con) [V]]

I thank my noble friend the Minister for answering questions on this very important Statement. I associate myself immediately with everything the noble Lord, Lord Foster, said. My great fear about the gambling review the Government are undertaking is that they are pinning it to a review of the 2005 Act. Of the House of Lords committee recommendations, which numbered more than 60, probably only three or four required legislation. I would like to hear from my noble friend the Minister that changes that can be made immediately will not have to await the lengthy passage through the legislative process in both Houses—consultation, White Paper, et cetera—before the Government act.

Neglect by previous members of the Gambling Commission and previous Governments has led us to a situation in which gambling is having toxic side-effects, resulting in suicides and misery, although a lot of us will have a flutter and enjoy it. My great fear is that the speed of action will not be met by the Government and that attaching it to the legislative review will slow things down. There is not a day to lose in fixing a sector in very serious disarray, causing untold misery.

[Baroness Barran (Con)]

I thank my noble friend for his remarks and his leadership of the committee in your Lordships’ House. He is, of course, absolutely right that legislation is not required to change a number of things and to make gambling safer, particularly for those people, including children, who may be vulnerable.

I hope that he takes some comfort from the speed and energy with which we have acted, including during this most difficult of years, when every department, including my own, has been under tremendous pressure. He will be aware that in the last 12 months we have banned gambling on credit cards and mandated participation in the national self-exclusion scheme, GAMSTOP. We have tightened restrictions on VIP schemes, banned reverse withdrawals and mandated increased monitoring and intervention during Covid. We have no intention of slowing down with that energy.

Covid-19: Orchestras and Cultural Venues

Lord Grade of Yarmouth Excerpts

Wednesday 1st July 2020 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Barran]

The noble Baroness is absolutely right about the ecosystem. The department has heard that loud and clear and understands it well. On detailed guidance as regards timings, I can only say that it is being worked on and will be published soon.

[Lord Grade of Yarmouth (Con) [V]]

I declare my interest as a theatre producer and a member of the DCMS task force looking at reopening the different constituent sectors under the DCMS. In that regard, I take this opportunity to place on record how extraordinarily impressed I have been by the effective work of the Secretary of State and his team, who are working day and night to try to get all the different sectors open as fast as possible; it is an extraordinary amount of work. We all know that there is a mile-long queue at the Treasury for help through this dreadful time, but the creative industries and arts sector will lose for ever a large swathe of our regional venues throughout the UK, particularly outside London. Can my noble friend the Minister give us any indication of how well the conversations with the Treasury are going, given the queue that exists?

[Baroness Barran]

I thank my noble friend for his contribution as part of the task force. We are acutely aware that, as government support unwinds, the situation becomes much more difficult for both regional and other theatres and venues. As the noble Lord, Lord Berkeley, mentioned, we have seen some closures already. The Government will not be in a position to save every venue, but we are regularly listening to the sector, actively talking to the Treasury and considering how best we can respond to the long-term challenges that the sector faces.

BBC: TV Licence Evasion

Lord Grade of Yarmouth Excerpts

Wednesday 5th February 2020 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Barran]

The noble Lord makes fair points regarding enforcement. That is clearly part of the process of consultation. One of the principles set out in the consultation document is about the cost and difficulty of implementing alternative schemes and whether alternative schemes are fairer and more proportionate. He will also be aware that colleagues in the Ministry of Justice are currently reviewing the enforcement industry with a view to introducing improvements there. I can confirm, as my noble friend the Secretary of State said the other day, that this is a process with various steps. The licence fee model stands as it is in the charter until 2027.

[Lord Grade of Yarmouth (Con)]

My Lords, the switch from free licences for pensioners to the BBC having to pay for a proportion of those licences for the over-75s has put huge pressure on the finances of the BBC. This feels like another attempt to impoverish and weaken the BBC. I remind the Minister and the Government that the BBC is the cornerstone of the creative industries in this country, which is one of the fastest growing sectors of the UK economy. It has huge success in promoting the brand of Great Britain around the world and is a fantastic engine for social mobility. Weakening and impoverishing the BBC is so damaging to this country and should be abandoned immediately.

[Baroness Barran]

The last thing that this Government want to do is weaken or abandon an asset as strong and important as the BBC. My noble friend the Secretary of State set out the process earlier today and it might be helpful to repeat that. She said, “What we are talking about today is the consultation on decriminalisation. The licence fee for the 2022 to 2027 period will be the next stage in terms of setting that and then there is the mid-charter review confirming that the obligations in the charter have been met”. The full charter review needs to be thought through and everything will be included within that, including the funding model, making sure that the BBC remains the asset that we all cherish, but in a very changed world.

BBC Charter Review

Lord Grade of Yarmouth Excerpts

Wednesday 22nd January 2020 Lords Chamber

[Lord Grade of Yarmouth (Con)]

My Lords, there is talk of the Government looking at decriminalising non-payment of the licence fee. In 2015, Mr David Perry QC produced an exhaustive and comprehensive report. The Conservative Government of 2015 accepted his recommendation, which was to leave things alone. What has changed?

[Baroness Barran]

My Lords, the Government have said that we will review whether or not non-payment of a TV licence fee should be decriminalised. We will set out the steps on how we will approach this in due course. My noble friend is vastly more expert in this area than I am. I think two key things have changed: first, the broader landscape of what media is available and how we consume it has changed out of all recognition, and secondly—I am sure a number of noble Lords heard what I heard on the doorstep—this is a real concern for people. As a Government, we want to listen to the people who voted for us.

Free Television Licences

Lord Grade of Yarmouth Excerpts

Monday 15th July 2019 Lords Chamber

[Lord Ashton of Hyde]

I do not agree that the BBC is pared to the bone. The BBC is a £5 billion organisation; it gets £3.7 billion from the taxpayer, so I do not agree that it is a pared-down organisation.

[Lord Grade of Yarmouth (Con)]

My Lords, I declare an interest as a former chairman of the BBC and, once upon a time, an executive there—in the good old days. However we got to where we are today on the issue of pensioners, we are where we are. Does my noble friend agree with me in praising the diligence with which the BBC has set about trying to solve the problem of meeting the expectation of help for pensioners while at the same time not impoverishing everyone else’s viewing by making swingeing cuts in programme budgets? The BBC has behaved impeccably and been meticulous in trying to respond to the problem.

[Lord Ashton of Hyde]

My noble friend makes the point that we are where we are. This was debated by Parliament and agreed. I know that some people, some noble Lords included, did not agree with the decision to pass responsibility to the BBC in the Digital Economy Act; nevertheless, that was done and the BBC is living up to the responsibility it was given. Dealing with the change in the structure of fees is a very difficult job, and television is changing dramatically, so I sympathise with the BBC; it has a difficult job to do. Nevertheless, we gave it a lot of warning—this was agreed in 2015—and that is why we are disappointed with what it has decided.

Data Protection Bill [HL]

Lord Grade of Yarmouth Excerpts

Monday 14th May 2018 Lords Chamber

[Lord Grade of Yarmouth (Con)]

My Lords, I regret that I cannot support the amendment in the name of the noble Baroness, Lady Hollins. This has been a passionate debate so far and there is, no doubt, more to come. However, there has been a definite lack of balance. There has been no mention of the good that the press has done over the many decades that I have been a newspaper reader. We can go back to Harry Evans and thalidomide; to MPs’ expenses in the Telegraph; we can talk about phone hacking itself, which was exposed by newspapers; the noble Viscount has just brought the Paradise papers to the attention of the House.

Addressing myself to the amendment, I have spent a lifetime on both sides of the media fence, as editor-in-chief of ITV and Channel 4; as a Daily Mirror sports journalist 150 years ago, when Charlton Athletic used to win; and, too often, as the subject of media scrutiny and—putting it at its most charitable—the victim of some very painful criticism. I have several reasons for opposing the amendment. First, if there is a principle underlying the proposed new inquiry into the press et cetera, how can regional newspapers be exempt? Is it a principle or is it not? If there is a problem, pleading poverty should not excuse you.

Secondly, lumping the press and broadcasting with social media on the issue of misuse of data is to misunderstand entirely the nature of the problem we face. Newspapers and broadcasters are governed very strictly in their handling of data, not only by regulators but by the Information Commissioner’s Office, with a carefully crafted exemption for public interest data searches. The ICO is a statutory body with draconian powers which it is not afraid to exercise. We know that Facebook and its ilk are displaying scant regard for data privacy. I am sure that noble Lords all agree that the Cambridge Analytica issue is the tip of the iceberg. Traditional media offer no evidence to justify this lumping together in the amendment.

Thirdly, I suspect that lying behind the amendment is yet another attempt to exercise some statutory controls or levers over our free media. Any inquiry, not least that envisaged by this amendment, is bound to produce recommendations, with the risk to free speech of some statutory device, overt or covert, buried in them.

Creative Industries: Skills Shortage

Lord Grade of Yarmouth Excerpts

Wednesday 2nd May 2018 Lords Chamber

[Lord Ashton of Hyde]

My Lords, no one is suggesting that STEM subjects are the only ones that matter. Indeed, I completely take the noble Baroness’s point that the arts are very important, especially for the creative industries. We expect a broad and balanced curriculum to be provided for schools. I am informed by the Department for Education that there is no evidence that a greater emphasis on STEM subjects has had a direct impact on the take-up of the arts in schools. Between 2010 and 2017, the proportion of pupils in state-funded schools taking at least one arts subject remained broadly stable and the percentage of time spent by secondary school teachers on teaching music, art, design and drama has also not changed significantly. However—to give the noble Baroness some comfort—the Secretary of State recently met the Secretary of State for Education to discuss this, and another junior Minister in my department met another junior Minister in the Department for Education on 27 April. Joined-up government is going on, and we are well aware of the sector’s views on this subject.

[Lord Grade of Yarmouth (Con)]

My Lords, I am delighted to hear the support for the creative industries and the contribution they make to growth in the UK. The other considerable achievement of the creative industries is in social mobility. I cannot think of any greater engine for social mobility than them. The key to that is some of the world-leading establishments, such as RADA, the BRIT School in Croydon and the National Film and Television School. I would welcome hearing from the Minister that the Government recognise the importance of those and other institutions in feeding the creative industries and avoiding the skills shortage that may loom in 20 years’ time.

[Lord Ashton of Hyde]

It is important to make the point that the creative industries are a tremendous success story. We are not talking about a rescue package, if you like, in the sector deal. They are growing at twice the rate of the rest of the economy. As far as my noble friend’s points are concerned, of course we understand, as I said, the importance of the arts. That is why, for example, the Department for Education announced £96 million of funding to give talented pupils the opportunity to attend top music, drama and dance schools. That takes government funding for music and creative arts programmes to almost £500 million. In fact, it is the second-highest amount of funding for a sector by the Department for Education after PE.