Asked by: James Wild (Conservative - North West Norfolk)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, with reference to the (a) UK-EU Summit - Joint Statement, updated 19 May 2025, (b) UK-EU Summit - Common Understanding, updated 19 May 2025 and (c) UK-EU security and defence partnership, published 19 May 2025, what his planned timetable is for discussions with (i) the EU and (ii) EU Member States on improving access arrangements for touring in Europe.
Answered by Nick Thomas-Symonds - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office
On 19 May, the Government published a renewed agenda for UK-EU cooperation. The Government agreed with the European Commission to proceed swiftly with the commitments and will keep Parliament updated on significant developments.
Asked by: Max Wilkinson (Liberal Democrat - Cheltenham)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, with reference to her Answer to the hon. Member for Cheltenham of 27 February 2025, Official Report, column 919, what the content was of her discussions with EU commissioners on reducing bureaucracy for artists touring EU countries.
Answered by Chris Bryant - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The Minister for Creative Industries, Arts and Tourism, Chris Bryant, met the EU Commissioner for Intergenerational Fairness, Youth, Culture and Sport, Glenn Micallef, on 26 February.
The Minister communicated the UK’s commitment to seeking a closer, more cooperative relationship with the EU, including by supporting UK creative professionals to tour in Europe. By ensuring artists and crew can move efficiently, we can support economic growth, job creation, and artistic innovation across the continent. The Minister and the Commissioner agreed to meet again to continue these discussions.
Asked by: Manuela Perteghella (Liberal Democrat - Stratford-on-Avon)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what support her Department provides to UK artists touring in the EU.
Answered by Chris Bryant - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
This Government is working collaboratively across departments to look at how best to help touring artists, and improve arrangements for musicians, performing artists and their support staff being able to tour across the EU.
The Government provides support for UK artists through initiatives such as the Music Export Growth Scheme, co-funded by the Department for Business and Trade (DBT) and the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS), and the International Showcase Fund, which is funded by the DBT. These schemes are designed to help artists access international markets, expand their reach, and promote the UK’s creative talent globally.
We will engage with the new European Commission and EU Member States, seeking improved arrangements across the European continent without a return to free movement. Our priority remains ensuring that UK artists can continue to thrive on the global stage.
Asked by: Lord Bassam of Brighton (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the potential benefits of a "Smart Fund" for the arts given its impact in 45 countries world-wide.
Answered by Baroness Twycross - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
The Government has made no recent assessment of the impact of a private copy levy scheme.
The 3rd Trade Specialised Committee on Intellectual Property under the EU-UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement discussed Private Copying Levies on 23 October 2023 and the Minutes were published on gov.uk here: https://www.gov.uk/government/groups/specialised-committee-on-intellectual-property
Asked by: Baroness Kennedy of Cradley (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what recent assessment they have made of the ease of UK-based artists' and musicians' ability to travel to work in the EU.
Answered by Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon
The UK Government recognises the cultural and economic value of the creative industries to the UK-EU relationship. The UK Government has worked closely with industry to help UK artists adapt to this new regulatory environment and continues to engage with stakeholders to understand their priorities.
The Government has engaged with EU Member States on their entry requirements for touring artists. The vast majority of Member States (24 out of 27) have confirmed that UK musicians and performers do not need visas or work permits for some short-term touring. This includes Greece, who announced a visa exemption for touring artists this June. We continue to call on the remaining Member States to make their arrangements as generous as the UK's.
Asked by: Jeff Smith (Labour - Manchester Withington)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, if she has made an assessment of the impact of the UK’s exit from the European Union on the income of UK cultural organisations.
Answered by John Whittingdale
HM Government recognises the great value of the UK’s world-leading arts and cultural sectors. The Creative Industries continue to thrive and are a key high growth sector of the economy. The sector contributed £108 billion in 2021, accounting for 6% of UK GVA, and employed 2.3 million people – 7% of the total UK workforce – with employment growth increasing at almost five times the rate of the economy more widely since 2011.
The UK Shared Prosperity Fund delivers on a commitment to match EU funding across all four nations of the UK and gives local communities control of how their money is spent, removing unnecessary bureaucracy and enabling them to invest in the cultural organisations that particularly matter to them.
Recently, the Department has also supported the cultural sector through unprecedented periods of financial instability and international border closures with the Culture Recovery Fund. As the published evaluation for the Fund shows, this £1.57 billion package of emergency cultural funding was delivered efficiently, helping support nearly 220,000 jobs and 5,000 organisations through the COVID-19 pandemic.
Similarly, the speed and highly targeted nature of the UK’s COVID-19 vaccination programme had a direct impact on our ability to open up the economy and ease social restrictions more quickly than other comparable countries.
The Department is also taking a number of steps to reaffirm and deepen the longstanding relationships with our European partners — and, indeed, with countries in other continents across the globe — which will support UK cultural organisations to maintain international connections and partnerships, and to forge new ones – for instance, supporting the British Council’s Seasons of Culture, via bilateral agreements with other governments, and through our membership of multilateral fora such as the Council of Europe and UNESCO. The Department also funds Arts Council England to support the sector to forge direct and deeper links at an institution-to-institution level. In all circumstances, we expect the UK’s creative output to continue to remain an export that is as highly valued in the European Union as it is across the world.
Asked by: Jeff Smith (Labour - Manchester Withington)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what steps she is taking to support cultural organisations to build and maintain relationships with European partners following the UK’s exit from the European Union.
Answered by Julia Lopez - Shadow Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology
The Department is taking a number of steps to deepen the longstanding relationships with our European partners — and, indeed, with countries in other continents across the globe — for instance by supporting the British Council’s Seasons of Culture, via bilateral agreements with other Governments, and through our membership of multilateral fora such as the Council of Europe and UNESCO. Ministers also undertake regular international visits and hold virtual meetings to champion British arts and cultural organisations, and engage in regular dialogue with counterparts from key partner countries.
To give a recent example, in March 2023 the Department supported the UK-France Summit. The communiqué from this acknowledged our deep cultural connections and shared interests and agreed to develop people-to-people initiatives including encouraging mobility, culture, and exchanges, within the framework of the EU-UK relationship.
The Department also funds Arts Council England to support the sector to forge direct and deeper links at an institution-to-institution level. We agreed an objective with Arts Council England to ‘Help the Cultural Sector to Work Internationally’. This is included in its 2021–24 Delivery Plan and covered in accountability meetings.
Asked by: Carol Monaghan (Scottish National Party - Glasgow North West)
Question
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, whether she has had discussions with her counterparts in the European Union on introducing a new visa which would allow people in the creative industries to spend more than 90 days consecutively working in EU countries.
Answered by Julia Lopez - Shadow Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology
This Government recognises the importance of the UK’s creative and cultural industries, not only to the economy and international reputation of the United Kingdom, but also to the wellbeing and enrichment of its people. We want musicians and performers to be able to tour abroad easily.
EU Member States are principally responsible for deciding the rules governing what work UK visitors can undertake in each Member State. That is why we have engaged with EU Member States about the importance of touring; most recently raised at the EU-UK Partnership Council in March. From these discussions, almost all Member States have confirmed they offer visa and work permit free routes for musicians and creative performers, many for up to 90 days. This includes most of the UK’s biggest touring markets such as France, Germany, Spain and the Netherlands.
Beyond these exemptions, creatives are required to obtain the relevant visa or work permit for the relevant Member State, as artists from other third countries are required to do. We have developed guidance on GOV.UK to support artists to understand the visa and permit requirements for medium and long term stays in Member States.
The Government is committed to supporting the sector to adapt to these new arrangements, and we continue to work with the sector and directly with Member States to clarify what creative workers need to do.
Asked by: Lord Kamall (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask His Majesty's Government what progress they have made in their work to help UK musicians to tour EU countries after the UK's departure from the EU.
Answered by Lord Parkinson of Whitley Bay - Shadow Minister (Culture, Media and Sport)
His Majesty’s Government is committed to supporting the UK’s world-class creative industries to adapt to new arrangements following our departure from the European Union.
We have worked extensively with the sector and directly with EU Member States, and have clarified arrangements on the movement of people, goods, and haulage. We have taken steps to support specialist concert hauliers, and have worked across Government and with the sector to develop guidance including ‘landing pages’ on GOV.UK specifically for touring musicians and other professionals from the creative sectors.
Through this work, we have confirmed that:
nearly all EU Member States offer visa- and work-permit-free routes for musicians and creative performers. This includes – following extensive engagement by the Government and the creative sector – Spain and, most recently, Greece, which announced a visa- and work-permit-free route in June 2022;
portable musical instruments, carried or in a vehicle, can be transported cost-free and should not require ATA Carnets; and
small ‘splitter vans’ are not subject to the Trade and Cooperation Agreement limits on ‘haulage for the creative sectors’ and ‘cross trade’. In addition, the Government has introduced dual registration to support specialist hauliers, meaning they can benefit from more generous market access arrangements in Great Britain and the EU.
We continue to work closely with the sector to support musicians and other creative professionals to tour internationally, both in the European Union and more widely.
Asked by: Patricia Gibson (Scottish National Party - North Ayrshire and Arran)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, with reference to the 90/180 day period set out in the Schengen Borders Code for third-country nationals, whether negotiations are ongoing with the EU to help reduce potential barriers faced by artists, creatives and professionals who tour in Europe; and what other steps her Department is taking to assist those people tour in Europe.
Answered by Julia Lopez - Shadow Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology
The Government is committed to supporting UK creatives to adapt to new arrangements when touring in the EU. The UK took an ambitious approach during negotiations with the EU that would have ensured that touring artists and their support staff did not need work-permits to perform in the EU. The Government deeply regrets that the EU rejected our proposals.
Our focus now is on supporting the sector by providing clarity, working with Member States, and implementing unilateral measures where possible. This includes the introduction of a ‘dual registration’ measure to help specialist hauliers move across the UK and EU.
The vast majority of Member States offer visa and work permit free routes for musicians and creative performers. This includes Spain, which introduced 90-day visa- and work permit- free touring in November 2021, and Greece, which announced a visa and work permit free route for UK creatives in June 2022, both following engagement by the UK Government and the sector.
We are aware that musicians and their support staff are concerned about the 90 in 180 day Schengen limit. Beyond this limit, creatives will be required to obtain the relevant visa or work permit for the relevant Member State, as artists from other third countries are required to do.
As rules and definitions vary across Member States, travellers should check with Member States’ own guidance before they travel. That is why we have worked closely with Member States to ensure their guidance is clear and accessible. As well as this, we have published guidance on GOV.UK, including updated travel advice for travelling to the EU, and individual business traveller summaries for EU Member States and European Economic Area (EEA) countries.