Asked by: Alex Sobel (Labour (Co-op) - Leeds Central and Headingley)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what recent discussions she has had with the EU Commission on access for UK creative artists.
Answered by Julia Lopez
The Government is committed to supporting UK creative industries to adapt to new arrangements with the EU.
We are supporting the sector by clarifying arrangements on visas, movement of goods and haulage, including through bilateral engagement with Member States. We have taken steps to support specialist concert hauliers, and worked across government and with industry to develop guidance including ‘landing pages’ on GOV.UK specifically for touring musicians and other creative sectors.
We have clarified existing arrangements and established that:
Nearly all Member States offer visa and work permit free routes for musicians and creative performers. This includes, following extensive engagement by the government and the creative sector, Spain and most recently Greece, who announced a visa and work permit free route in June 2022;
Portable musical instruments, carried or in a vehicle, can be transported cost-free and should not require ATA Carnets; and
Small ‘splitter vans’ are not subject to the Trade and Cooperation Agreement limits around ‘haulage for the creative sectors’ and ‘cross trade’. In addition, the Department for Transport is implementing dual registration to support specialist hauliers, meaning they can benefit from more generous market access and cabotage arrangements in GB and the EU.
The Government raised touring with the European Commission at the first meeting of the UK-EU Partnership Council in June 2021. We continue to work with the few remaining Member States that do not allow any visa or permit free touring to encourage them to make touring easier.
Asked by: Alex Sobel (Labour (Co-op) - Leeds Central and Headingley)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what steps her Department is taking to help allow UK creative artists to tour freely across the EU.
Answered by Julia Lopez
The Government is committed to supporting UK creative industries to adapt to new arrangements with the EU.
We are supporting the sector by clarifying arrangements on visas, movement of goods and haulage, including through bilateral engagement with Member States. We have taken steps to support specialist concert hauliers, and worked across government and with industry to develop guidance including ‘landing pages’ on GOV.UK specifically for touring musicians and other creative sectors.
We have clarified existing arrangements and established that:
Nearly all Member States offer visa and work permit free routes for musicians and creative performers. This includes, following extensive engagement by the government and the creative sector, Spain and most recently Greece, who announced a visa and work permit free route in June 2022;
Portable musical instruments, carried or in a vehicle, can be transported cost-free and should not require ATA Carnets; and
Small ‘splitter vans’ are not subject to the Trade and Cooperation Agreement limits around ‘haulage for the creative sectors’ and ‘cross trade’. In addition, the Department for Transport is implementing dual registration to support specialist hauliers, meaning they can benefit from more generous market access and cabotage arrangements in GB and the EU.
The Government raised touring with the European Commission at the first meeting of the UK-EU Partnership Council in June 2021. We continue to work with the few remaining Member States that do not allow any visa or permit free touring to encourage them to make touring easier.
Asked by: Alex Sobel (Labour (Co-op) - Leeds Central and Headingley)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what steps she is taking to ensure equitable access to (a) digital resources and (b) videos for the deaf community in the UK.
Answered by Julia Lopez
We want to build a world-leading digital economy in which no one is left behind by the digital revolution. That means ensuring that as many people as possible can reap the benefits of being online and the technologies that can transform our lives, benefit society and drive prosperity and growth.
However, we are aware that for disabled people, poor design of apps or websites - which does not take disabled users into account - remains a significant issue. This is why, in early 2022, DCMS collected evidence about the nature and scale of the inaccessibility of private sector websites. We are now exploring how the government can effectively intervene and will report back in spring 2022.
This work will complement the government’s 2018 publication of the Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) Accessibility Regulations. Led and monitored by the Government Digital Services (GDS), these regulations require UK public sector websites and apps to be made accessible, unless it would be disproportionate to do so.
In relation to video-on-demand (VoD) content, the Digital Economy Act 2017 amended the Communications Act 2003 to give the Secretary of State the power to impose statutory requirements on on-demand services regulated in the UK in relation to access services - including subtitling and signing. Following recommendations from Ofcom in December 2018 and July 2021, officials are considering their proposals and will set out next steps for implementation in due course.
Asked by: Alex Sobel (Labour (Co-op) - Leeds Central and Headingley)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, whether her Department makes an assessment of prospective trustee candidates' views on (a) climate change and (b) climate governance prior to their appointment.
Answered by Julia Lopez
Candidates are not routinely assessed on climate change and climate governance prior to their appointment.