Baroness Featherstone (LD)

My Lords, I rise in support of the regret Motion of the noble Lord, Lord Clement-Jones. One of the great joys of being British is that we hold high standards and pride ourselves on fair play. We have always traditionally upheld strong intellectual property protections and advocated for fair treatment of performers. The order should focus on fair compensation for performers and the principle of reciprocity in international copyright law. By removing or limiting payments to certain foreign performers, we risk looking like we are undermining global standards of fair pay for artists and damaging our reputation as a champion of creators’ rights, because the order limits the rights of certain foreign performers to receive equitable remuneration for the public performance and broadcasting of their work in the United Kingdom. This is particularly unfair to artists from countries that are not party, as people have said, to the Rome convention or the WIPO Performances and Phonograms Treaty—WPPT—as they will not have a legal right to remuneration and will now receive little or no payment for their work being commercially exploited in the United Kingdom, whereas other performers will. I am sure—and I very much hope and expect—that the Government have read Equity’s cogent arguments on this issue, and I hope and trust that they will listen and act on the issues raised. As Equity pointed out, it is also unfair because this option was not consulted on properly, despite the Government’s protestation, and the Government should withdraw the SI and consult again properly on the new option. This order could even provoke retaliatory measures from affected countries. To be frank, given that the United States is now led by a heavyweight—that is the politest term I could muster—who shoots from the hip, this is even more dangerous and could lead to UK performers facing similar restrictions from abroad, and to British performers losing their right to equitable remuneration in key international markets, reducing their global earnings. This order creates a two-tier system whereby some foreign performers continue receiving payments while others do not, even if their work is commercially successful in the United Kingdom. It undermines the principle that all artists should be fairly compensated for their work, regardless of nationality. As an addendum, if fewer performers are entitled to equitable remuneration, UK collecting societies may collect less overall, which might impact their ability to distribute royalties efficiently and affect the broader musical and entertainment industries. In conclusion, this order undermines fair pay for performers and risks harming UK artists abroad, and it could even lead to unnecessary international disputes. So, instead of limiting performers’ rights, the UK should lead by example and ensure that all performers are treated equitably, regardless of their nationality.