Creative Industries

Jim Allister Excerpts

Monday 27th January 2025 Commons Chamber

[Jim Allister (North Antrim) (TUV)]

The creative industries undoubtedly make a significant contribution to our economy, but they are about much more than that. They make a broad and deep contribution to who we are, to our culture and to our nation. When it comes to economic contribution, in Northern Ireland we have a thriving creative industry in a number of spheres. Under the guidance of Northern Ireland Screen, which has as its honorary president the redoubtable Sir Kenneth Branagh, we have seen significant success in the screen industry and many successful productions, none more so than “Game of Thrones”. Happily, quite a bit of it was filmed in my constituency of North Antrim, at the famous dark hedges—where, sadly, on Friday we lost four of the large trees in the storm—and at Ballintoy harbour, among other places.

We are appreciative of that economic contribution, which does not end with the creative industries but creates, in the very names I mentioned, an advantageous spin-off in tourism. Many tourists come to North Antrim to see the dark hedges, and many tourists visit various filming locations. We are happy to have had that benefit in Northern Ireland. Of course, we also have the hon. Member for Strangford (Jim Shannon), who is, in a manner of speaking, a creative industry in himself. There is no more creative Member of this House when it comes to finding an intervention in each and every debate.

[Chris Bryant]

Intervene—go on!

--- Later in debate ---

[Jim Allister]

He is suddenly silent, thankfully.

That is all very good, but the thrust of what I want to say relates to a niche sector of the creative industries: the craft sector as it applies in Northern Ireland. The sector is often made up of one-man or one-person operations, or those involving a couple of people, but cumulatively it is quite important. However, in Northern Ireland it has had a huge and debilitating problem in recent months. Historically, it has, unsurprisingly, secured much of its raw materials from Great Britain, but because Northern Ireland was left behind in the EU single market, we are now subject to the general product safety regulation. Under that regulation, there are inhibitions on imports of the raw materials and goods necessary for the craft industry, as well as others. Bigger sectors can more easily withstand that, but smaller sectors cannot.

What is happening is that suppliers in GB are simply stopping supplying, because the bureaucracy of the GPSR is such that a business cannot supply into the EU market—and therefore, sadly, into a part of the United Kingdom, namely Northern Ireland—unless it has a person living within that perceived EU territory who is its “responsible person”. A business in Great Britain that wants to supply basic elements into the craft sector or some other sector in Northern Ireland has to pay to have someone in place in Northern Ireland. More than that, among the other requirements of the GPSR, that seller from GB needs to put labels on every product with the contact information of the responsible person and the contact information of the manufacturer—this is all about the internal market of our own country—and the responsible person’s name and contact details, including their postal and electronic addresses, need to be displayed in online listings. With that burden on suppliers, it is no surprise that, where the market for the product is small, they simply say, “It’s not worth the effort. We will stop supplying.” The loser in that is the Northern Ireland craft sector.

It has got to the ridiculous stage where some online retailers, such as Folksy, advise sellers that

“the UK now excludes Northern Ireland”.

That is a quote—the United Kingdom “now excludes Northern Ireland”. “Europe,” it says,

“has become EU & Northern Ireland”.

Amazon states on its seller website that “from December 13, 2024”—that is when the regulation came in—

“Responsible Person requirements will apply to most non-food consumer products offered for sale in the EU and Northern Ireland, under the…GPSR”,

and it tells its GB sellers that they must meet all the requirements I have just cited, including the labels saying who the responsible person is, how they can be contacted, who the product came from, and so on.

Unsurprisingly, that is crippling the craft market in Northern Ireland. Bizarrely, it has got to the point where we are told that it includes digital downloads. A lady called Alison Evans, who runs Zanycraftsuk, has been told that even digital downloads of knitting patterns are covered by the new regulations of the Irish sea border. Think of it: the EU single market is so fragile that it cannot withstand the downloading of a knitting pattern from Doncaster to Downpatrick. How ridiculous is that? Yet that is where we are with these regulations. The Minister told us that this Government would bulldoze barriers. Well, here is a barrier for him to bulldoze with all his might, in protection of the craft sector and other sectors in Northern Ireland.

That takes me to the AI controversy. [Interruption.] I will be very quick. I share many of the concerns, but I want to make this point clear to the House. The Government have said that they are going to be adventurous on AI, but not for Northern Ireland, because Northern Ireland is going to be subject to the EU’s regulations of AI, which are much more restrictive. So once more, divergence is leaving us behind and a separate regime is going to be the order of the day. That is another to barrier to bulldoze, Minister.