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Creative Industries

I was pleased that we were able to find an initial sum of money to support the implementation of section 107A of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, as that has allowed the regime to start that work rolling. Our thinking now, subject to further negotiations, is to get industry to put in a bit of money to support the effort that we want the police and the officers in local authorities to undertake. My hon. Friend is right; the more resources that we have, the more successful we will be in that regard. I want to talk a little bit about the roles of regional development agencies and local government in the creative industry sector. We know that the sector works best in clusters. We propose to pilot the development of a regional creative economy strategic framework—thinking about such industries in the region—both in the north-west and south-west. If those frameworks are successful as a mechanism for the regional development agencies to intervene and support the creative economy at regional level, we will try to roll it out across the country. We are working with the Local Government Association to develop advice for local authorities on how to improve their creative infrastructure, and that will include advice on things such as providing suitable business space, developing links with universities and colleges, and encouraging networking and local networks. I turn to our international work. The UK is at the forefront of the world's creative economy. An OECD study showed that we have a higher percentage of our economy working with creative industries than any other country in the OECD family. A large part of that strength is down to our reputation for creativity and innovation. As incomes and aspirations rise in developing countries, there should be more opportunities for British companies to work abroad. However, we have to maintain that advantage and ensure that London and Britain continue to be seen as the best places to trade. I am, therefore, pleased that UK Trade and Investment agreed a five-year strategy—we have put it into our document—to look at our international competitive position. The strategy has three themes: developing stronger messaging, which resonates with overseas buyers; ensuring promotional activities; and encouraging other new initiatives in target markets. We want to combine two of the UK's and London's key strengths in the creative industries and financial services to initiate what we have called a world creative business conference, which we want to become a regular feature in the calendar and which we aspire to have the same status as the Davos World Economic Forum. That would cement the UK as the world's creative hub and help to develop the ongoing and important dialogue between the creative and the financial sector, which is very important to get equity into the creative industries. The creative industries are extremely fast moving. They have changed massively in the past five years, and I have no doubt that they will change massively in the next five, which is why we have said that this is the next phase in an ongoing programme. I want to establish a mechanism in which I can have a continuing and regular dialogue with industry representatives and other important stakeholders, so that they have an effective voice in shaping our agenda and programme as we move forward. Their contribution so far has been a major factor in the success of the creative economy programme. I hope that all parts of the industry will continue to engage with the Government. The document ““Creative Britain: New Talents for the New Economy”” is the summation of nearly three years of work. It could not possibly articulate all the issues that we have investigated, debated and discussed; similarly, we could not discuss all the issues within the document now in this debate. I hope that I have given the Chamber a good taste of the challenges that face the creative industry, and I look forward to the contributions of other hon. Members.