Creative Industries

Lord Grade of Yarmouth Excerpts

Monday 8th February 2016 Lords Chamber

[The Earl of Courtown]

My Lords, the DCMS and the Department for Education liaise on all these matters, particularly in relation to music. I should add that, between 2012 and 2016, the Department for Education invested £246 million in a network of music education hubs. These hubs have a number of roles, including ensuring that all children have the opportunity to learn to play a musical instrument.

[Lord Grade of Yarmouth (Con)]

Does the Minister agree that there cannot be much wrong with the creative industries in the United Kingdom if they can produce anything that will be missed as much as “War and Peace” on the BBC over the past few weeks? I am mourning it already—I do not know what I am going to do with Sunday nights. The growth of the creative industries in this country through the recession and so on is a testimony to successive Governments’ policies in respect of the creative industries. Does the Minister agree that the best thing the Government can do is to leave well alone?

[The Earl of Courtown]

I hope my noble friend finds something to do on Sunday afternoons. Apart from that, I agree with him entirely.