King’s Speech

Lord Parkinson of Whitley Bay Excerpts

Tuesday 14th November 2023 Lords Chamber

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Culture, Media and Sport (Lord Parkinson of Whitley Bay) (Con)]

My Lords, it is a pleasure to close the debate on the fourth day of our debates on the humble Address to His Majesty, particularly as it falls on His Majesty’s 75th birthday. I will not risk the confusion of the clerks and the ire of my noble friends the Lord Privy Seal and the Chief Whip, particularly in the midst of a reshuffle, by suggesting amendments to our humble Address but I am sure we would all want our humble Address to be accompanied by the warmest good wishes on His Majesty’s birthday.

I welcome the noble Baroness, Lady Thornton, back to her place speaking on DCMS matters on the Opposition Benches. Like her, I had the pleasure of being at the opening of the London College of Fashion last week and swimming against the tide of West Ham fans on the way back. She is right that it is a jewel in the new East Bank development in which more than one Mayor of London has played a key role. It is a great new addition to our cultural life in the capital.

I join the noble Baroness and others in welcoming the fantastic maiden speeches we heard today. I start with the speech from the right reverend Prelate the Bishop of Newcastle, who, as was rightly pointed out, was a trailblazer in the Church of England. I was baptised in her diocese and the noble Lord, Lord Griffiths of Burry Port, will be glad to know that that was in Cullercoats Methodist Church. It is a part of the world I know well. She is absolutely right to point to the proud sporting, cultural and industrial heritage of the north-east of England, and I applaud her ecumenical approach to the rival football allegiances represented across Tyne and Wear.

I was impressed, and I think we were all moved, by the right reverend Prelate’s Māori quotation and the well-chosen words with which she ended her speech. As somebody who was raised on either side of her diocese, in the Scottish Borders and in Sunderland, I am sure she will have equal command of the Geordie dialect and we look forward to her wise words in whatever form she wishes to put them.

My noble friend Lord Willetts was right to point out the Novocastrian theme present throughout this debate, perhaps in the right reverend Prelate’s honour. We rightly heard about Sir Jony Ives and his education at Northumbria University. My noble friend mentioned the Centre for Life at Newcastle University, which is home now as well to the Creative Industries Policy and Evidence Centre, which does so much good work in informing our debates on the creative industries, and I declare my interest as a member of court of Newcastle University.

I welcome too the maiden speech from my noble friend Lady Owen of Alderley Edge, who has already got the measure of, as she put it, the “robust” but “collegiate” debates we have in your Lordships’ House. She is right to point to the value of having a digital native among us as we debate some of the issues we have touched on today, as well as issues such as housing and the environment in which future generations will of course have such a stake. She spoke with grace— I agree with the noble Baroness—humility, empathy and passion, and we look forward to her future contributions in your Lordships’ House.

My noble friend Lady Owen and my noble friend Lord Ranger of Northwood both spoke very movingly of the debt that they owe their parents and grandparents. Their ancestors took very different paths but their presence and their legacy were heard very clearly and, I think, proudly today. My noble friend Lord Ranger showed in his very thoughtful speech how his first-hand experience in driving technological innovation in our capital city and more widely will help him meet the challenge he rightly set us all to make sure that our debates on digital services and new technologies remain relevant and well informed. We look forward to hearing more from all three of our maiden speakers today.

I want to highlight a speech that was made by my right honourable friend the Secretary of State yesterday in Manchester at the Aviva Studios, where she met businesses from across our creative industries to underline our commitment to help them forge ahead with plans to grow our creative industries by £50 billion by 2030. More than 150 cultural and creative businesses were there, discussing how government and the industries can work together to maximise the potential of these thriving sectors—one of the five key areas of the economy as identified by my right honourable friend the Chancellor.

In her speech, my right honourable friend the Secretary of State highlighted the aims of our sector vision, which are

“to grow our Creative Industries by an extra £50 billion … to create a million extra jobs—all over the country—by 2030 … and to deliver a Creative Careers Promise that harnesses the potential of our young people and constructs a pipeline of talent into our creative industries”.

These were not just—as the noble Lord, Lord Knight of Weymouth, said—“warm words”. To accompany them, the Secretary of State announced that the Government are

“doubling the number of areas in the Create Growth Programme, with almost £11 million additional funding … to provide targeted support to around 1,800 creative businesses”.

She also launched the £5 million supporting grass-roots music fund to ensure support for the lifeblood of our world-leading music sector and venues, which are the cornerstones of their communities, and, of course, Creative Careers Week has begun this week. It is an initiative supported by DCMS, helping to inspire the next generation to go into our creative industries so that we can build that talented pipeline. I am looking forward to meeting some of the young people who will benefit from that work later this week.

This underlines the importance of cultural and creative education, a point mentioned by the noble Lord, Lord Knight, and others. Its importance was underlined powerfully by the speech from the noble and right reverend Lord, Lord Chartres, no doubt aided by his great penmanship and command of the inkwell. As noble Lords know, the Government are working between DCMS and the Department for Education on a new cultural education plan, informed by an expert panel chaired by the noble Baroness, Lady Bull, putting forward ideas about how we can improve cultural education not just in schools but through our cultural organisations and the youth sector.

Earlier this year, the Chancellor announced wraparound care for primary schools. The Secretary of State and I are working to see how we can get more creativity into our primary schools in those hours that children will be staying after school. Through the Advanced British Standard announced by the Prime Minister earlier this autumn, there is another opportunity to support creativity and cultural education in our schools. That is on top of the £25 million of additional capital funding for music in schools, which accompanied the national plan for music education, in which my noble friend Lady Fleet played such a part.

I share the pain of the noble Baroness, Lady Thornton, at not being able to attend the wonderful concert by the talented students of the Yehudi Menuhin School in the Cholmondeley Room. It was sponsored by noble friend Lord Blackwell, co-hosted with the noble Baroness, Lady Wheeler, the noble Lord, Lord Clement-Jones, and the noble Earl, Lord Clancarty—who rightly, I saw, nipped out and, I hope, enjoyed it on our behalf. That school admits pupils based on their talent and musical potential, regardless of their social and financial background—a policy that my noble friend Lord Blackwell says is possible only through the lifeline of pupil support provided by the Department for Education’s music and dance scheme, together with bursaries funded through charitable donations.

The noble Viscounts, Lord Colville of Culross and Lord Stansgate, mentioned the threats to our political process and to public discourse of misinformation and disinformation, particularly as amplified by AI. That topic was very much on our minds as we debated the Online Safety Act—which I am glad to call by that name, now that it has received Royal Assent—and it is one in which both the arts and the sciences can play a role. Tomorrow, I am attending an event at the Royal Academy organised by Art UK, called the Superpower of Looking, setting out the key role that arts education can play in equipping young people with the critical thinking and scepticism that they will need to navigate a world in which digital images, videos and more can be cynically manipulated.

We need to equip people with skills so that we can grow the AI sector in a responsible way. Our flagship initiatives are our £30 million AI and data science conversion course and our scholarships programme, which aim to address the lack of diversity and the supply of talent in the labour market in AI in the UK. We established the programme in 2020 to fund universities to develop master’s-level AI or data science courses suitable for non-STEM students, alongside 1,000 scholarships. Since then, more than 6,300 students have enrolled on those courses.

Based on the success of that programme, from this year we have begun working with employers to fund up to 2,000 more scholarships, with up to £16 million of public funding available depending on the level of industry investment. In addition, we are creating new AI PhDs through centres for doctoral training, to support the UK’s development of AI talent, with £117 million of investment.

We want the best people from around the world to come and be part of that work. We recognise, as did the noble Lord, Lord Patel, that, following our exit from the EU, both creative and scientific professionals face new requirements; we are working with them to help them understand and adapt to these. The Government keep our visa arrangements under review and will continue to strike a balance between reducing overall net migration in the long-term and welcoming the talented people who can contribute to our scientific and creative endeavours.

On routes for creative professionals, we have spoken to every EU member state to encourage them to adopt arrangements as generous as those we have in the UK. The majority of member states offer visa and work permit-free routes for musicians and creative performers. As outlined in the Creative Industries Sector Vision, we will expand the export support service to help creative exporters as well. I know this is a matter on which noble Lords will rightly press my right honourable friend the Foreign Secretary when he joins your Lordships’ House.

The noble Baroness, Lady Doocey, mentioned our borders in relation to tourism. She talked about previous arrangements by which people could travel on ID cards. As she will know, some of the EEA identity cards were among the least secure documents that we saw at the border and dominated detection figures for document abuse. We do not accept identity cards from countries around the rest of the world and we are able now to deal with that fairly across the globe. We expect all visitors to the UK to hold a valid passport and visa where necessary. However, I hope she has noted that, as part of the agreement we reached with France during the leaders’ summit in March between the Prime Minister and the French President, we have committed to easing travel between our two countries for schoolchildren on organised trips. Work is now well under way to introduce those arrangements.

The noble Baroness is right, of course, to point to the importance of the visitor economy as a powerhouse of the UK economy, delivering jobs and driving growth right across every part of the UK. The Government are committed to supporting the sector and ensuring that we become more competitive in a rapidly growing global industry. We are doing that through implementing the recommendations of the destination management organisation review and the destination development fund, which, again, I am happy to say is happening in the north-east. We hope that that part of England can be a pioneer for other areas in unlocking the potential of tourism and the visitor economy.

I agree with the noble Earl, Lord Devon, that heritage is a vital part of that—a keen magnet for tourism domestically and from around the world. As he mentioned, I had the pleasure of speaking this morning at the 50th birthday celebrations of Historic Houses and was able to congratulate and thank that organisation for the work it has done to champion our built heritage, which is so important, not just for tourism but of course as an incubator for so many of our creative industries, film locations and so much more.

The noble Baroness, Lady Jones of Whitchurch, talked about the importance of digital infrastructure. Some 78% of premises today can access gigabit-capable networks, up from just one in 10 in November 2019. That is a huge jump, I hope she would agree. By 2025, we want at least 85% of premises to have access to gigabit-capable broadband and by 2030 we want this coverage to be nationwide. We continue to work on that through the £5 billion Project Gigabit and by taking legislative steps, such as through the Product Security and Telecommunications Infrastructure Act and changing building regulations to mandate gigabit connectivity to all new-build homes, we have implemented nearly all of the recommendations set out by the Public Accounts Committee. We will be completing the final one by sending a letter to the committee soon setting out our plans beyond 2025.

My noble friend Lady Stowell rightly mentioned digital exclusion. We are committed to ensuring that nobody is left behind in the digital age and our recent UK digital strategy, published in 2022—so not yet in the National Archives—sets out key actions and initiatives that support the three main pillars of digital inclusion: access, skills and trust. On access, I mentioned the work we are doing through Project Gigabit; on skills, in England we are providing free training for adults with low digital skills on new essential skills qualifications through the digital entitlement; and on trust, through the Online Safety Act, the UK is leading the way globally with legislation that will tackle online harms and make the internet a safer place for us all.

Many noble Lords, understandably, talked about AI and many facets of it. On its interaction with intellectual property, the Government recognise the enormous potential of AI to deliver better public services and high-quality jobs, and to enable future high-growth industries. We support AI innovation in the creative industries, including through our £100 million BridgeAI programme, our £50 million investment into the next wave of creative industries clusters programme, and our £75 million in funding for the UKRI CoSTAR network.

It is important that while we harness the benefits of AI, we also manage the risks. That includes particular risks to our vital creative industries, where it is important that creativity and originality are supported and encouraged. The Government want to make it easier for AI firms to access and analyse copyright-protected materials for machine learning research and innovation, while ensuring that rights holders have appropriate protection. That is why we asked the Intellectual Property Office to work with AI users and rights holders to develop a code of practice with the aim of making licences for data mining more easily available and to help overcome the barriers that AI firms and users currently face. That is a complex task but we look forward to the outcome of its deliberations on it.

On AI regulation more broadly, we received responses to our consultation on the AI regulation White Paper from more than 350 individuals and organisations. Alongside that, we actively sought the views of others through a series of round-table meetings and technical workshops, and we will be publishing our response to that consultation later this year to ensure that we can take into account the outcomes of the AI Safety Summit, which I am glad a number of noble Lords mentioned in their contributions. I am happy to reassure the noble Lord, Lord Patel, that UKRI is indeed independent. It is a non-departmental government body. Its funding decisions are made independently from government as per the Haldane principle.

The noble Lords, Lord Butler of Brockwell and Lord Foster of Bath, talked about gambling, as I expected them to. We want everyone who chooses to gamble to be able to do so safely and to make sure that we have the right balance between respecting adults’ freedom of choice and preventing harm. Gambling reform remains a priority for His Majesty’s Government, and we are on track to have the key measures from our White Paper in place by next summer. Measures such as the stake limit on risky online slots products, online financial risk checks and the new ombudsman can all be taken forward without primary legislation. They did not need a mention in the gracious Speech. I know that the noble Lords and others will make sure that your Lordships’ House has the opportunity to scrutinise our progress on them.

On loot boxes, the Government are committed to ensuring that video games are enjoyed safely by everybody. That is why we undertook an extensive call for evidence to look at the issues relating to loot boxes. Our response to the call for evidence set out the view that loot boxes should not be purchased by children unless approved by a parent or guardian, that all players should have access to spending controls and transparent information, and that better evidence and research should be developed to inform future policy-making. To pursue those objectives, we convened a technical working group and, in July this year, the trade body Ukie published new industry-led guidance on improvements to player protections. The Government welcome that, which, if implemented, has the potential to meet the objectives set out in the Government’s response. We have agreed a 12-month implementation period, during which we will monitor the industry’s compliance with these new measures, supported by independent academic scrutiny facilitated by our new video games research framework.

A number of noble Lords mentioned the importance of our broadcast media. The noble Baroness, Lady Fox of Buckley, is right to highlight the importance of the BBC’s impartiality, but also of the way it describes global events. The attacks by Hamas in Israel since 7 October are terrorist acts committed by a terrorist organisation, proscribed as such in the United Kingdom since 2021 and by a number of other Governments and international organisations. The Secretary of State has been clear how proud she is of our world-leading BBC, but in this case she does not believe it has set the right standard. True impartiality means being grounded in facts. The legal position in the UK on this matter is clear: Hamas members are terrorists. Calling these acts what they are and accurately labelling the perpetrators helps audiences to understand what has happened, what is still happening and its context. That is the point that the Secretary of State has been clear to the BBC about.

On Channel 4, the noble Viscount, Lord Chandos, asked what steps we are taking to strengthen Channel 4’s governance arrangements as part of the reform package that was agreed with Channel 4 in January. The Media Bill will place a new statutory duty on the Channel 4 board to consider the corporation’s long-term financial sustainability alongside the delivery of the channel’s public service remit. That will be underpinned by an updated memorandum of understanding between the DCMS and Channel 4, which was published last week.

On grass-roots sport, the noble Lord, Lord Addington, and others highlighted the football regulator, which I look forward to debating with noble Lords in the Session ahead. Our investments in grass-roots sport are focused on getting people active, particularly people from underrepresented groups. Half of the £300 million spent on football facilities will go to the 40% most deprived local authority areas in the country, and 40% of the projects will benefit another sport.

My time has almost run out. With so many people speaking on such a wide range of topics, I feel, rather like the noble Lord, Lord Storey, that it is not possible to touch on everything. However, I know that we all look forward to debating the Bills in this area over the Session ahead. The points that noble Lords have raised in today’s well-informed, thoughtful and wide-ranging debate will improve our scrutiny of those Bills as we take them forward in the next Session.

Debate adjourned until tomorrow.