Brexit: Cultural and Educational Programmes

Lord Howell of Guildford Excerpts

Thursday 30th November 2017 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Chisholm of Owlpen]

The UK will certainly continue to have world-class arts and the DDCMS is working closely with the Home Office and the independent Migration Advisory Committee to ensure that the needs of the arts and cultural sectors are understood. In recognition of the critical importance to the sector of access to world-class talent, the Government recently doubled the number of tier 1 exceptional talent visas available for a number of key sectors, including the creative and cultural sector.

[Lord Howell of Guildford (Con)]

My Lords, are we not confusing the European Union with Europe?

[Baroness Chisholm of Owlpen]

Absolutely—my noble friend makes such a good point: we may be leaving the European Union but we are not leaving Europe. It is also important to remember that as far as our cultural sector is concerned, we are held in high esteem in Europe. We lead this sector and the European stakeholders have certainly indicated that they do not want to lose this partnership.