Lord Parkinson of Whitley Bay (Con)

My Lords, we had to hit pause, but I shall resist the temptation to hit rewind and repeat what I said. I was echoing the points that have been made: a lot of the problems here are with the way the Valuation Office Agency tries to understand the particular nature of these important businesses. At the very helpful meeting with the noble Baroness, Lady Twycross—which the noble Lord, Lord Freyberg, alluded to—we heard from a lot of people across the sector. They are frustrated that they have one conversation with the Government but hear something different from the Valuation Office Agency. If there is a way to short-circuit that, I know that they would appreciate it. There is also the broader question of how the Government value and account for things. Can the Minister say whether, in bringing these measures forward in the discussions that His Majesty’s Treasury had with the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, he was able to talk to the team there that works on the culture and heritage capital programme? That team is working to arrive at a Green Book-compliant way of valuing the wider benefits that we have heard about. That includes the social benefits of our cultural infrastructure in terms of not just our physical and mental health and well-being or tackling isolation and loneliness, particularly in rural areas or areas of deprivation, but trying to put a value on inspiring the future generations of musicians, artists and others. It seems that the decision here runs counter to the Government’s noble aims in their creative industries sector plan to grow what are already world-leading sectors for the United Kingdom. Nevertheless, they are precarious and challenged by a number of global competitors, which are breathing very heavily down our necks. As the noble Lord, Lord Watson of Wyre Forest, said, we have a very delicate ecology and ecosystem in these sectors, and it is very important that we all do everything we can to maintain that.