Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what progress his Department has made on producing guidance for the performing arts sector on the visa and work permit requirements for each EU Member State.

While UK performing artists are still able to tour and perform in the EU, being outside the European Union means practical changes on both sides of the Channel that will require understanding and adaptation. We recognise this, and that is why we are working urgently across government to ensure guidance is clear, up to date and accessible for the performing arts sector travelling to the EU.

To date, we have published guidance on GOV.UK, signposting to official information provided by EU countries about their business travel routes. We will continue to enhance guidance for businesses to support travel for work purposes under our new trading relationship with the European Union, and we will publish business traveller summaries for each Member State in April. We are also developing sector specific “landing pages” for GOV.UK.

We will imminently be engaging with EU Member States to improve their guidance, specifically around their entry and work permit requirements, to ensure this is as clear and accessible as possible. Where there are issues around the clarity of Member States’ immigration rules, we will also raise these with the European Commission.

And through the DCMS-led Working Group, we are working closely with sector bodies - several of whom have already produced excellent guidance in this area - to help distil and clarify the new rules further.