Draft Design Right, Artist’s Resale Right and Copyright (Amendment) Regulations 2023 Draft Intellectual Property (Exhaustion of Rights) (Amendment) Regulations 2023

Debate between Andrew Griffith and Ian Lavery

Wednesday 22nd November 2023 General Committees

[Ian Lavery (Wansbeck) (Lab)]

For the sake of clarity, will the Minister inform the Committee what sort of exhaustion regime the Government intend to introduce? When is that likely to happen?

[Andrew Griffith]

As I said in my remarks, the Government are consulting on that, and it is right that we take the time. To be transparent, I cannot give the hon. Gentleman a specific time and date. The issue is complex, and officials are working through when that is, but we have consulted and that regime will come. I hope we all agree that it is more important to be right than to be fast in this domain; that is certainly the strong message that we hear from industry.

In the meantime, the regulations, if the Committee supports them today, will provide valuable certainty to industry. The last thing anyone wants is for us to go into the start of next year with uncertainty. These regulations give us the opportunity to take the time. If the hon. Gentleman wants to make representations, I will be happy to entertain them. Hon. Members on both sides of the House engage very strongly with the industry, and I hope that when we reach agreement on what the regime looks like, we can do it on as much of a cross-party basis as possible.

Question put and agreed to.

Draft Intellectual Property (Exhaustion of Rights) (Amendment) Regulations 2023

Resolved,

That the Committee has considered the draft Intellectual Property (Exhaustion of Rights) (Amendment) Regulations 2023.—(Andrew Griffith.)