Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what discussions he has had with music collecting societies on reducing the cost of a licence for playing music in small business premises.

The Department’s agency, the Intellectual Property Office, has regular discussions with a range of music collecting societies. Collecting societies are private, commercial organisations and, although the Government regulates them in some respects, it plays no role in setting their licence tariffs. Businesses that are dissatisfied may have recourse to the Copyright Tribunal, an independent judicial body which adjudicates on the price and terms of copyright licences.