Contribution
Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker. I was expecting to be tail-end Charlie again.
The creative industry has many facets from practical to digital and, as I mentioned in my intervention on the Minister, Northern Ireland excels in all of them. The Minister kindly responded in a very positive fashion, realising that each region of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland contributes to the creative industry.
My Strangford constituents are incredibly gifted, including those who carved the lion, the witch and the wardrobe into the trail at Rostrevor. The hon. Member for Cheltenham (Max Wilkinson) mentioned his favourite film, “Paddington 2”. Well, Ards and North Down borough council has a statue of Paddington sitting on a bench and eating a sandwich in Conway Square, Newtownards, and people come from all over the place to take photographs, including me with my grandchildren. It has become one of the many tourist attractions in Strangford. It is a new one; Paddington has been instrumental in that.
From those encouraging nature walks, family time and tourism to the home crafters who sell through Etsy—or should I say used to sell through Etsy—the insidious Northern Ireland protocol has curtailed supplies to the extent that many of these small creative workers are trying to throw in the towel, but they cannot even source the material to make the towel. The hon. and learned Member for North Antrim (Jim Allister) is right to make that point. I will not dwell on it, but I wanted to put it on the record. From those who upcycle defunct trombones into beautiful lamps to those who bake and sell their wares UK-wide through TikTok, the creative industry has the ability to thrive, yet it is being curtailed. Although I understand that this is not a debate on the damage done by the protocol, the protocol is intrinsically linked to the creative industry in Northern Ireland. Again, will the Minister please discuss this with the Cabinet and repeat the point raised by the hon. and learned Member for North Antrim, which I have also made to a lesser extent?
Before the full extent of the postal implications of the protocol came into force, our creative industry in Northern Ireland was going from strength to strength. The creative industry employs over 5% of the entire workforce and contributes nearly £1 billion of gross value added. The Department for Communities estimates that to be 29,000 jobs, or 3.4% of total employment in Northern Ireland. This is not a niche sector. It is a real sector that deserves real support.
The Minister should be greatly encouraged—as I am, and we all should be—by each Member who has spoken about the culture and creative industry in their constituency. When we add together the massive wealth of creative industry across each and every constituency, it augurs well for the future.
New and emergent technologies are a fast-growing market, and incorporating them into the creation and delivery of arts experiences can open up valuable new ways of generating income for arts organisations and individuals. Film NI and the promotion of film opportunities have grown massively, and we now see blockbusters filmed on our shores, which lifts and encourages us all. The hon. and learned Member for North Antrim referred to the film sector, which is represented in my constituency as well.
Movie and screen productions filmed in Northern Ireland directly boosted the local economy by £330 million between 2018 and 2022. That period includes the covid years, which means the potential is even greater. The Minister referred to the comedy programme “Derry Girls”, which every one of us loves. It does not matter if people are Unionists or nationalists; humour is the same, whichever side it comes from. I know my hon. Friend the Member for East Londonderry (Mr Campbell) is particularly enthralled by “Derry Girls” and he is of a very, very different tradition.
I have focused on the great jobs that are being done within our creative industries, but the purpose of the debate is to ensure that we retain the facility and ability to produce. Concerns have been highlighted to me that the talented people who make up our world-class creative industries, such as publishing, music and visual arts, will have to go to great lengths to opt out of their work being used to train the AI models. We must set our minds to that issue. In response to earlier queries, the Minister referred to how that will be done, so I am keen to hear from him just what that means. It has been said that the system is hugely burdensome and unworkable, especially for smaller rights holders. In companies with few employees, the opt-out system will create new costs and administrative burdens that will not be feasible for a great many in our creative sectors. We cannot lose that sector because of issues that could be stopped and changed.
The proposed exception would also jeopardise future potential growth in the UK’s world-leading creative sector, disincentivise the creation of new works, and weaken the property rights of creators and businesses of all sizes across the UK. We need truly to celebrate our creative industries. To do that, we must protect the current copyright framework—that is the big ask for the Minister, from me and many others.
In conclusion—I am conscious of time—our creative industries, both practically and digitally, need protection. We must prioritise that enterprise when we are considering innovation, so I look to the Minister to do that. He is enthusiastic and wants us to succeed, and I think we want to support him and help him to make that happen, so how can we protect and enhance this sector, which has so much potential?