Why is domestic abuse and stalking not considered serious by government?

Prison Capacity
Justice Questions (21 November 2023)

Kevin Brennan Shadow Minister (Victims and Sentencing)
The Secretary of State’s emergency early release scheme is meant to tackle a capacity crisis that is entirely of this Government’s making, and it excludes only serious violence. Surely domestic abuse and stalking are serious offences, yet they are not excluded from early release. What kind of signal does that give to victims, the public, and indeed perpetrators of violence against women and girls?

Alex Chalk The Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice
We are proud that under this Government sentences for offences such as rape have gone up by a third. We have a situation in which charges are up, the conviction rate is higher and sentences are longer—and, unlike under the Labour Government, people are spending a higher proportion of those sentences in custody. We think that is the right thing to do. To the hon. Member’s point, the exclusions in place go beyond what he indicated, so he is factually incorrect; they also include sex offences and terrorist offences. Here is a really important point: where the custodial authorities are satisfied that there is a specific risk, there is an opportunity to ensure that release is blocked. That is important, because we will always stand up for victims of crime.

Kevin Brennan Shadow Minister (Victims and Sentencing)
Argument weak? Go long and do not answer the question—the classic response from this Government. The truth is that without any Government announcement of a start date, prisons began releasing offenders over a month ago. These men are already walking our streets, but the Government will not tell us how many, or why they were behind bars in the first place. Why do the Government not believe that the public deserve to know who is being released back into the community when a court decided that they should be in prison?

Alex Chalk The Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice
We will make whatever appropriate announcements in due course; we will not demur from that. We will also not apologise for having, under this Government, a higher custodial population than before. We are taking robust steps to ensure that the public are protected, which means unashamedly that those who commit the most serious offences—those such as murder in the context of sexual or sadistic conduct—go to prison for the rest of their lives. Will the hon. Member support that? I wonder. We are also using the evidence so that those capable of rehabilitation are rehabilitated. One thing that we will not ever put at risk is the threat to women and girls. As the Under-Secretary of State for Justice, my hon. Friend Laura Farris, indicated, we have taken steps to ensure that victims of domestic abuse will be properly protected under the Government.

UK Government's Tourism Sector Deal falls short of what's required

Tourism Sector Deal Shadow DCMS Team Response:

Today the Government announced their much-delayed Tourism Sector Deal which though welcome falls short of what is required.

Research by the Office for National Statistics shows that the tourism sector is heavily reliant on employees from other EU countries. In the UK economy as a whole, 7% of employees are from the EU whereas in the two biggest tourism industries, food and beverage service and accommodation services the proportion is far higher, at 12% and 19% respectively.  In the Sector Deal the Government have failed to acknowledge and plan for the impact of the end of freedom of movement on employment in the tourism sector.

Labour welcomes the commitment in the sector deal to shift perceptions about jobs in the tourism and hospitality industry. The introduction of the T levels in Cultural Heritage and Visitor Attractions, and Catering will go some way towards supporting workers in the tourism industry in building and developing their careers. The industry commitment to provide 30,000 new apprenticeship starts every year by 2025 shows the hard work the industry is putting in in order to support the tourism industry in the UK.

The introduction of Tourism Zones recognises the key role Local Authorities play in creating successful Tourism destinations but will not replace the need for restoring Local Government finances which have been hit so hard by austerity.

There is no recognition of the confusing landscape of destination management and marketing organisations (DMOs) in this deal. Regional Development Agencies, established by Labour and abolished by the coalition government, invested heavily and successfully in tourism product and promotion across England, creating jobs, strengthening communities and spreading the economic benefits of both inbound and domestic tourism. Now we have hundreds of often tiny DMOs working on a shoestring and directly competing with their next-door neighbours.

The lack of a national DMO strategy and the failure of this Government to require Local Economic Partnerships to take tourism seriously, and invest accordingly, undermines this deal and renders much of it academic.

The Tourism Sector Deal completely fails to address the impact of devastating Government cuts to Local Authority budgets over the past decade. The ambition behind ‘Tourism Zones’ is admirable but without the funding to back it up this will simply heap increased pressure on already severely stretched Local Authority budgets.

The deal also takes no account of and does not mention something that businesses up and down the country have been telling us at our tourism round-tables. Business rates increases have stifled the growth of many SMEs and the Government cannot claim to want to see SMEs grow - and that they are the backbone of the tourism economy – without addressing this.

Tourism should be accessible to everyone and the focus in the Tourism Sector Deal on ensuring accessible transport for everyone regardless of their health conditions or access requirements is a welcome step. The Government’s intention to make the UK the most accessible destination in Europe by 2025 is welcome as is the target of increasing the number of inbound visitors with a disability by 33% by 2025, but it needs to be clear how this will be achieved.  More also needs to be done to enable poorer families to have a holiday in the UK.

In the Sector Deal, the Government have said that they intend to introduce an Electronic Travel Authorisation (ETA) scheme that EU citizens will need to apply for instead of a visa to come to the UK. However, the sector deal fails to say how much an ETA will cost and the Government have not included any analysis of the effect of the increased cost travelling to the UK will have on visitor numbers.

Shadow Arts and Culture Minister, Kevin Brennan MP said:
“The delayed tourism sector deal announced today is a partial step forward in supporting the vital tourism industry in this country but does not address the full scale of the challenge ahead especially in light of Brexit.

“They have not properly assessed the impact of introducing a charge for European Union visitors who want to travel to the UK and they have also failed to properly recognise the reliance of the Tourism industry on workers from the EU.

“Moreover, the failure to address the impact of cuts to Local Authorities makes it clear that more needs to be done to protect and support the Tourism industry in the UK for years to come.

“Neither is there a commitment to develop social tourism for those who cannot afford a holiday or a proper look at how more resources could be raised locally to support events and tourist infrastructure.”

Speech on the return of cultural objects taken during the holocaust

Holocaust (Return of Cultural Objects) (Amendment) Bill (First sitting)
27 February 2019

Kevin Brennan (Cardiff West) (Lab): I thank everyone who has spoken, including my hon. Friend the Member for West Ham. I also thank my hon. Friends the Members for Bassetlaw and for Ilford North, who are here in support of the Bill and who have done tremendous work themselves in this area over the years.

I congratulate the right hon. Member for Chipping Barnet on bringing this important Bill to Committee. I am happy to confirm that it has the full support of Her Majesty’s loyal Opposition. She spoke once again with great force and authority on this issue. In doing so, she does a great service to not only the British Jewish community and the Jewish community throughout the world but humanity as a whole. The Bill says that the sun should never set on justice and righteousness, and that principle, despite its application to the uniquely horrifying episode that was the holocaust, nevertheless carries universal force in its message of human redemption.

I was privileged some years ago to travel with a group of MPs, prominent figures and sixth-formers to visit Auschwitz-Birkenau. It was one of many such visits organised by the Holocaust Educational Trust, led by its inspirational chief executive Karen Pollock and supported by the then Government. I am glad to say that the scheme exists to this day. Anyone who has undertaken that visit could not help but be horrified by the capacity for human depravity exemplified in the industrialisation of death at the Birkenau death camp, or to be moved to renew their pledge to fight antisemitism and oppose the politics of racism and hatred. The Bill is a small practical manifestation of the fulfilment of that duty, and I thank the right hon. Lady for piloting it thus far.

I also pay tribute, as the right hon. Lady did, to the work done by Andrew Dismore, the former Member of Parliament for Hendon and a current London Assembly member. He was rightly praised by the shadow Culture Secretary, my hon. Friend the Member for West Bromwich East (Tom Watson), on Second Reading. Andrew Dismore worked tirelessly to get the original Act, which the Bill seeks to extend, through the House in 2009—even sleeping ​on the floor of the Public Bill Office overnight, as one used to have to do, to ensure that he had a high enough place in the ballot to get his Bill heard.

Andrew Dismore also introduced the private Member’s Bill that established Holocaust Memorial Day in 2001. I recently attended the Welsh national Holocaust Memorial Day event in Cardiff city hall, and other hon. Members will have attended their own events. We heard from the First Minister of Wales, Mark Drakeford, and from Renate Collins, who was “torn from home”, which was the theme of Holocaust Memorial Day, as my hon. Friend the Member for West Ham said. As a child, Renate Collins was evacuated from Prague in 1939, and she came to live in Wales, where she still lives.

As we know, the holocaust was one of the worst events in human history, with millions of lives extinguished and millions more changed forever. The fact that it happened on our continent, in the heart of western civilisation, is a reminder of why we must be constantly vigilant against antisemitism and all forms of racism and remember that genocide starts with casual prejudice—in the dehumanisation of others who are deemed different by virtue of religion, ethnicity, lifestyle or sexuality. That such horror could be perpetrated, not just by those directly involved, but because of the indifference of others in the general population, should make us all reflect on what Hannah Arendt called the banality of evil and on our own roles in actively preventing it from taking root. Let us give thanks to the important work of all organisations that ensure that the world will never forget.

The Bill addresses an extremely important subject: the return of cultural objects looted by the Nazis. During the Nazi reign of terror, millions of precious cultural objects were stolen from the Jewish community. Some have been recovered, but many thousands remain missing. It has been estimated that around 100,000 objects stolen by the Nazis are still missing. We should do everything we can to reunite cultural objects that surface with their rightful owners. More than 70 years from the end of world war two there are still families who have not been reunited with precious artefacts that rightly belong to them.

As many survivors of the holocaust reach the sunset of their lives, it is vital that their descendants have confidence that this Parliament is committed to ensuring that the sun does not set on their ability to recover what is rightfully theirs. The Bill, as we have heard, repeals the sunset clause provision of the 2009 Act, which gave our national museums and galleries the power to return these special cultural objects on the recommendation of the Spoliation Advisory Panel.

Since 2000, 23 cultural objects taken by the Nazis have been returned to their rightful owners, including a John Constable painting, stolen by the Nazis after the invasion of Budapest, which was returned by the Tate in 2015. We must ensure that the panel can continue its vital work. It has carried out its work fairly and delivered justice to the families of those whose precious possessions were stolen. It works in co-operation with our national museums and galleries, the directors of which I addressed at their council meeting at the Science Museum yesterday. They support the panel’s work and are in agreement on the urgency and necessity of returning stolen objects to their owners.​
This is a carefully targeted, specific piece of legislation that works well. It is particularly important for those whose stolen possessions have, sadly, still not been found. For those who might not even know about this process and might not even harbour a hope of getting back what their families once treasured, the Bill can also give hope.

When I undertook that visit with the Holocaust Educational Trust over a decade ago, the spectre of antisemitism might have seemed, to some, to be on the wane, but it is clearly on the rise again, with antisemitic hate crimes, as my hon. Friend the Member for West Ham mentioned, hitting a record number in 2018. That should anger us all, and we must do everything in our power to face it down, including by supporting honourable colleagues from all parties who have been the subject of death threats, racist and misogynistic abuse, bullying and antisemitism. I once again thank the right hon. Member for Chipping Barnet for all the work she has done on this vital Bill, which delivers a small amount of justice to those who have suffered so greatly.

In closing, let me say that I had the pleasure in 2017 of watching the Liverpool Everyman theatre production of the beautiful musical “Fiddler on the Roof”, which included—I hope no one minds my mentioning this—my brother Patrick in the starring role of Tevye. Colleagues will know that it tells the story of a Jewish family in Russia who were forced from their home by the pogroms that were the precursor of the ultimate obscenity of the Nazi holocaust. In thinking of the Bill and what it seeks to do, the words of one song my brother sang in that production came to mind:

“Sunrise, sunset, sunrise, sunset

Swiftly fly the years

One season following another

Laden with happiness and tears.”

As the years fly ever more swiftly by, let us hope that the right hon. Lady’s Bill, in removing the sunset clause, will bring a small ray of happiness to some victims’ families, as they contemplate through tears the horror that befell their relatives because good people did too little, too late to stand up to evil.

UK Government break promise on free TV licences for over 75s

On the day the BBC’s consultation on the future of free TV licences for over-75s ends, Cardiff West MP and Shadows Arts & Heritage Minister, Kevin Brennan, has slammed the UK Government for breaking their manifesto promise and has accused them of using stealth methods to try and hit Welsh pensioners' pockets and cause damage to the BBC.

If free TV licences are scrapped completely it will cost over-75s in Wales a combined total of £32 million a year, this is despite the UK Government promising them their free TV license would remain in place until 2022.

The situation has arisen because the UK Government has outsourced the social policy to the BBC without giving them the financial means to maintain it. The most likely enforced options for the BBC are to scrap it completely, give concessions linked to pension credit or raise the qualifying age.

Mr Brennan says this is a disgraceful way to treat pensioners and the BBC.

"There is theme running through this Tory Government where they either kick difficult decisions further down the road or force those difficult decisions on other people and organisations to make," said Mr Brennan.

"This is exactly what they have done by outsourcing the free licence fee for over-75s to the BBC, who now face a difficult decision of slashing up to £745 million from their own budget, forcing elderly people to pay their own fee or a combination of both.

"This Tory Government is using stealth methods to hit Welsh pensioners' pockets and in the process they are trying to pass the blame onto the BBC who will also be hit hard by these disgraceful tactics both financially and through their excellent reputation.

“The Government are already going to save £220 million in 2021/22 through their changes to pension credit and by going after free TV licences as well they will make almost £1 billion by hitting the pockets of the elderly.

"The pensioners in my constituency who could lose their TV licence either now or when they reach qualifying age will be furious at this Tory Government for breaking their manifesto promise and rightly so.”

Summing up the Commons' Armistice Centenary debate for the Labour frontbench

It was a great honour to sum up the House of Commons' Armistice Centenary debate for the Labour frontbench. This is a short clip from the end of my speech, the full speech is below. We will remember them.

Kevin Brennan Shadow Minister (Digital, Culture, Media and Sport) (Arts and Heritage):
As many have said, it is a privilege to speak in this debate. I feel completely unworthy to speak, in a sense, following the many extraordinary speeches that we have heard this afternoon and this evening from right hon. and hon. Members. By my count, we have had 26 speeches from Back Benchers, and two excellent speeches from the Front-Bench spokesmen. The debate was opened by the Secretary of State for the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, who was extremely ably answered by my hon. Friend Tom Watson, the shadow Secretary of State, who spoke brilliantly.

There have been so many brilliant speeches that it would be invidious to single one out. What struck me, however, is that we have heard speeches from all four nations of the United Kingdom, and on a variety of aspects of the Armistice and the great war, ranging from the role of women and Ireland—being of Irish heritage, I found that deeply interesting and significant—to the role of the Quakers; I was glad to hear Vicky Ford mention them at the end. It has been an extraordinary, illuminating and, at times, emotional debate. Hon. Members did well to hold it together at times, because there has certainly been a catch in the throat and a tear in the eye across the House from time to time.

We are grateful for the opportunity to commemorate the Armistice that marked the end of the great war, and for the chance to speak of our armed forces communities, and the sacrifices that were made and continue to be made for our safety. As we have heard, the Armistice put an end to over four years of tragic conflict between Germany and the allied forces, and mechanised killing on land, at sea and in the air. It was signed at 5 am on 11 November 1918 in a French railway carriage in Compiègne, and the guns stopped firing six hours later. As we heard earlier today in the service in St Margaret’s, the Prime Minister of the day, the Welshman David Lloyd George, when announcing the terms of the Armistice, expressed relief at the ending of what he called

“the cruellest and most terrible war that has ever scourged mankind.”

It is interesting to note how different people approach history, because I visited that railway carriage in Compiègne many years ago, and of course the same carriage was used by Hitler in 1940 to force the French into signing the surrender that resulted in Vichy France and Germany occupying most of France. However, when I visited it 25 years ago, there was no mention of that anywhere in the entire French presentation—there was reference only to the 1918 signing of the Armistice. We should acknowledge all aspects of history. This afternoon and evening, hon. Members have given an honest appraisal of the great war, the Armistice, its significance and all aspects of it, good and bad.

Bob Stewart (Conservative, Beckenham):
We have not talked about the French much today, but the French suffered incredible casualties. My wife’s family lost 17 members at Verdun. We have a biscuit tin full of Croix de Guerre, Légions d’Honneur and Médailles Militaire, but we do not even know to whom they were given. The French really suffered, as did the Germans.

Kevin Brennan Shadow Minister (Digital, Culture, Media and Sport) (Arts and Heritage):
I am glad that the hon. and gallant Gentleman has had the opportunity to put that on the record.

It is difficult to envisage the scale of the scourge that Lloyd George talked about. Four million men served in the British Army, alongside 3 million soldiers and labourers from what was then the British empire and Commonwealth. Some 1.27 million served from India alone, as well as over 10,000 from Jamaica. There were over 10 million military and 7 million civilian fatalities worldwide. Around 1 million British military personnel were killed, and the fighting stretched from Flanders to Gallipoli, from Pilckem Ridge to Palestine.

On this centenary of Armistice Day, we ponder three central thoughts. First, we honour the memories of those who fought and died. Secondly, we are solemnly grateful that the terrible tragedy came to an end. Thirdly, we are committed to preventing such devastation from happening again. I have been present in this Chamber when the House has been in a different mood—when the drums of war have been sounding. We should remember this moment when, inevitably, such events present themselves to us again. We should remember this kind of debate, as well as the mood the House sometimes gets into when we hear the sound of the drums of war.

These moments of commemoration are important, and I thank all those involved: the Imperial War Museum, the BBC, the Royal British Legion, the Commonwealth War Graves Commission—we have heard so much about the commission this afternoon—and the Heritage Lottery Fund. The fund held an important reception last week, and Dr Murrison, the Prime Minister’s envoy, was present. It really was a testament to the hard work done by him and by my hon. Friend Dan Jarvis on the commemorations.

Kevan Jones (Labour, North Durham):
I think my hon. Friend has missed them by mistake, but he also needs to thank the parliamentary authorities, which have done an excellent job. The Library and the archivists have shown the history not only of Members of both Houses who fought and died in the war, but of the Clerks and other staff who served.

Kevin Brennan Shadow Minister (Digital, Culture, Media and Sport) (Arts and Heritage):
My right hon. Friend is absolutely right, and I acknowledge the work he has done with the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, including with me in Wales; we did some work a few years ago on restoring some of the graves in my Cardiff West constituency.

Members will know that the legacy of the first world war resonates in all our communities. Most cities, towns and villages in the UK have a war memorial, and we will all be visiting those war memorials this weekend to lay wreathes and pay tribute to those who left our communities more than 100 years ago and did not return. I will attend the Welsh national wreath-laying ceremony in Cardiff, and a special service of commemoration at Llandaff cathedral in my constituency. Baroness Finlay of Llandaff and I will both lay wreathes at the war memorial in Llandaff city on Friday.

Every community has its own first world war story, and as many others have done, I will briefly pay tribute to those from my Cardiff West constituency whose courage has become part of our collective memory. On 7 July 1916, the 16th Battalion of the Welsh Regiment, known as the Cardiff City Battalion, fought at Mametz wood alongside other Welsh units as part of the 38th Division, which was devised by Prime Minister David Lloyd George and included the Welsh Regiment, the South Wales Borderers and the Royal Welch Fusiliers.

The Cardiff City Battalion was exposed to heavy machine-gun fire, and more than 150 men died, with many more injured. Welsh rugby internationals Dick Thomas and John Williams were among the dead. A survivor, William Joshua, recalled:

“On the Somme, the Cardiff City Battalion died.”

It might be of interest to you, Mr Speaker, that Fred Keenor, who subsequently captained Cardiff City football club when they defeated Arsenal in the 1927 FA cup final, was injured at the battle of the Somme, and it very nearly ended his football career.

Anna Soubry (Conservative, Broxtowe):
We have the games of remembrance in Nottingham on Thursday. The German and British women’s army teams will play at lunch time at Notts County, and in the evening the British and German men’s army teams will play at Nottingham Forest. Although I am sure that the hon. Gentleman would love to attend, he probably will not be able to, but is it not a great event?

Kevin Brennan Shadow Minister (Digital, Culture, Media and Sport) (Arts and Heritage):
It is a great event. I will not be able to attend, but I can do even better than attend: my hon. Friend Nia Griffith, the shadow Secretary of State for Defence, will be there on behalf of the Labour party.

Vernon Coaker (Labour, Gedling):
And me.

Kevin Brennan Shadow Minister (Digital, Culture, Media and Sport) (Arts and Heritage):
My hon. Friend will also be there, so I can supply Anna Soubry with some first-rate people in support.

I had better press on, Mr Speaker, before you call us all back to order. The following year saw the battle of Passchendaele, which carries particular weight in Welsh cultural memory, as my hon. Friends the Members for Llanelli and for Ynys Môn (Albert Owen), who is sitting at the back, will know. We commemorated the battle’s centenary last year with a debate in this Chamber. Every village in Wales was affected by the battle, and 20,000 first language Welsh-speaking soldiers alone were killed at Passchendaele.

1917 was the year of Eisteddfod y Gadair Ddu, the Eisteddfod of the black chair. Some hon. Members will know that the Eisteddfod is the annual Welsh-language cultural festival, with poetry, dancing and singing. That year, Ellis Humphrey Evans, under the now-famous pseudonym, Hedd Wyn, was judged as the winner of the chair at the Eisteddfod, the highest honour available in Welsh culture, which is awarded to the best poet writing in traditional strict meter. However, when the winner’s pseudonym was called in the traditional ceremony at the Eisteddfod, no one stood up in the audience to reveal themselves as the triumphant poet. It was then announced that the winning bard had been killed in battle six weeks prior. Hedd Wyn had been one of 4,000 men killed on a single morning when the Royal Welch Fusiliers went over the top in the battle of Pilckem Ridge. The poet from Trawsfynydd has become the subject of poems and history lessons in classrooms across Wales, and even of an Oscar-nominated feature film.

That poignant story of Hedd Wyn captured the mourning of a nation. Stories such as these help us to remember the humanity of each individual who lost their life, and we have heard many such stories this evening. Each one was a son, a daughter, a loved one who was missed by someone at home. As we have seen today, they are still missed by their descendants in this House and across the country.

In my constituency, in 1917, the Women’s Land Army was formed; 20,000 women across the UK enlisted to work in places such as Green Farm in the Ely area of my constituency, which is now a council housing estate. As a farm, it was run predominantly by female farmhands during the war. One of the workers, Agnes Greatorex, left domestic service to work on the farm. She said:

“Every morning, we would get up at five o’clock and milk a hundred cows. We would then take the milk to Glan Ely Hospital.”

That is where the soldiers were kept. I am proud, as I am sure we all are, of the efforts of Agnes and so many women across the country; we have heard about those in today’s debate. In rightly commemorating the enfranchisement of some women in 1918, let us not forget that working-class women such as Agnes, or my grandmother, Gwenllian Evans, did not get the vote until nearly a decade later.

Albert Owen (Labour, Ynys Môn):
My hon. Friend is talking about the effort of women during the great war. It is worth recognising that the Women’s Institute was founded during this period; as the Speaker knows, we held the centenary event in my constituency. These women were the stars of the home front as well, and they are worth mentioning.

Kevin Brennan Shadow Minister (Digital, Culture, Media and Sport) (Arts and Heritage):
My hon. Friend is absolutely right to refer to the founding of the Women’s Institute. May I also pay tribute to him for rightly drawing attention, as a former merchant seaman, to the sacrifice of the merchant navy? It is of course because of these sacrifices that the centenary of Armistice Day, and Remembrance Sunday each year, are an essential part of our cultural life. We must remember those who fought to keep us safe. We must recommit to ensuring that we never allow such division and devastation to happen again.

With your indulgence, Mr Speaker, I will close, as others have done, with poetry. I turn to the words of Hedd Wyn’s poem “Rhyfel”, which means war in Welsh. I will read part of it in Welsh first and then give the English translation. It reads:

“Mae’r hen delynau genid gynt,
Yng nghrog ar gangau'r helyg draw,
A gwaedd y bechgyn lond y gwynt,
A’u gwaed yn gymysg efo’r glaw.

It translates as follows:

“The harps to which we sang, are hung
On willow boughs, and their refrain
Drowned by the anguish of the young
Whose blood is mingled with the rain.”

Mr Speaker, we will remember them.

Cardiff West MP celebrates communities’ role in WWI Centenary

Cardiff West MP and Shadow Arts & Heritage recently attended a House of Commons event hosted by the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) to celebrate the contribution made by local communities across the UK to mark the First World War Centenary.

Since 2010, National Lottery funding has enabled more than 2,200 projects to explore and share thousands of diverse stories of the First World War. From stories of Pals battalions, soldiers from Commonwealth nations and conscientious objectors through to women’s work, food shortages and the impact of the war on children, the stories have been varied and illustrate the First World War beyond the frontlines.   

After meeting a range of community groups and hearing the stories they have uncovered, Kevin Brennan, MP for Cardiff West, said:

“It’s been inspirational to see how communities across the UK have been responding to the First World War Centenary and I'm pleased to see the National Lottery are helping these projects with their grants programme." said Kevin.

"As a Welsh MP and the Shadow Minister for Arts & Heritage I was particularly pleased to see community projects such as those by Head4Arts in South Wales which aims to tell the stories behind the First World War through art projects such as their 'The Last Post / Yr Utgorn Olaf ' play.

Ros Kerslake, HLF’s CEO, said: “The First World War was a truly global conflict, stretching out across oceans and continents. But its impact at home was huge. Communities, families and society were forever changed by this war."

"National Lottery funding has empowered people to discover and share the thousands of stories of the First World War that matter to them. And the response from communities has been an inspiration.”

In 2012, HLF launched a community grants programme called First World War: then and now, offering grants are available between £3,000 to £10,000. Over the Centenary, HLF awarded more than £14million to community projects.

In addition, HLF awarded larger grants to First World War projects. Projects include Imperial War Museum’s First World War Galleries; HMS Caroline and the home of First World War soldier and poet Hedd Wyn. Total HLF funding in the First World War Centenary comes to almost £100million.

For more information on HLF’s funding for First World War Centenary projects visit: www.hlf.org.uk/about-us/news-features/OneCentenary or follow #OneCentenary100Stories on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.

Daily Mail: Working class actors are being kept out the industry by costs

Young Britons dreaming of a future on the stage are less likely to make it if they are from a working class family because the education system is failing them, it has been claimed.

The union Equity has demanded change for those dreaming of a life in the limelight, with president Maureen Beattie now at the helm.

Shadow Culture Minister Kevin Brennan said: 'These figures show that young people eligible for free school meals are drastically underrepresented in creative subjects at A Level, especially in music.

'If we continue along this path, working class kids on free school meals could be excluded from careers in the creative industries as they might not have the qualifications needed.

You can read the article in full here.

Mirror: Poorer kids quit music and drama in greater numbers

Poorer children are quitting creative subjects between GCSE and A Level in greater numbers than peers from wealthier backgrounds, according to research by Labour.

Figures show that 9.8% of pupils eligible for free school meals studied music GCSE in 2016/17, compared with 6.6% of all children.

The party believes arts and culture in the UK could become “even posher” than they are now.

Shadow Culture Minister Kevin Brennan said: “These figures show that young people eligible for free school meals are drastically underrepresented in creative subjects at A Level, especially in music.

“If we continue along this path, working class kids on free school meals could be excluded from careers in the creative industries as they might not have the qualifications needed.

“With creative workers more resistant to redundancy through automation, working class kids could be left without the skills they need for well-paid and durable work in the future.”

You can read the article in full here.

Blog: Never underestimate the importance of a 'staycation' for the economy

As the sun continues to shine, people across the UK are planning day trips, beach days, weekends away, and longer summer getaways. The hot weather reminds us all over again how many brilliant places there are to visit in our local areas, and further afield. It’s due to these destinations and attractions that the UK’s tourism industry is world-beating. This warm weather may not last forever, but the UK’s warm welcome is here all year round.

In recent moths I have been travelling across the UK holding discussions to help develop Labour’s tourism policy. Tourism is at the heart of many of our communities, and we need to make sure those communities are reaping the rewards. Tourism is the fastest growing sector in terms of employment, reaching almost 9.5% of UK jobs in 2016. Just three museums, the Victoria and Albert, the Science Museum, and the Natural History Museum, attract more visitors per year than the entire city of Venice.

But it becomes a problem if visitors are too concentrated in London. We need to make sure that the economic benefits are better shared across the country.

The UK Government should be doing more. Local Authority budgets have been drastically slashed since 2010, so it comes as no surprise that local tourism budgets have suffered. Likewise, as lottery revenue falls there isn’t as much money available for the restoration and maintenance of some of our heritage landmark buildings. The tourism industry is an important economic driver and employer, but all too often politicians and policy makers don’t give it the credit it deserves.

That’s why I decided to invest some time travelling around the country listening to tourism voices on how to develop and deepen Labour’s tourism policy. It’s right that we’re proud of the National Museums and landmarks that attract tourists from all over to London, but with the help and support of the tourism sector, I’ve been looking at how the industry is working outside of the capital, including the hugely important contribution of domestic tourism. Never underestimate the importance of the staycation.

I’ve held roundtable discussions in Scarborough, Manchester, Belfast and Exeter to learn about the work being done in different kinds of destinations, and to see what the next Labour Government could do to help. It has been a pleasure spending some time visiting the waterfronts, cathedrals, theatres, sea-sides and meeting the people that make the UK such a great place to visit.

As expected, each unique location had their own specific issues to raise. Some were concerned about the length of the tourist season, others wanted more power to take decisions on a more local level. As ever Business Rates revaluation is a concern for many. For most, the potential impact of Brexit on staff and skills is a real and pressing worry, and in Belfast there is the added concern about the future border between the UK and EU in Ireland. Of course Belfast has benefitted from the ‘Setjetting’ phenomenon – visitors attracted by film and TV locations (in this case Game of Thrones).

But it was particularly striking how much these very different destinations had in common. Across the country access to funding and finance is a constant concern, and local economies rely on domestic visitors and on people who come to visit family and friends. More needs to be done to support the domestic market, and to promote careers in the tourism and hospitality industry to young people in schools and adults looking for retraining.

Some interesting questions have emerged for Labour. Should we be doing more to support social tourism? This would provide more opportunities for a break for families most in need. Should local areas be free to introduce a tourism levy where business and Local Government agree? Should there be a resilience fund to help areas where visitor numbers are affected by tragic events like terrorism attacks? How should we regulate the new “disrupters” like accommodation providers Airbnb or Booking.com?

It is sometimes said that Labour does not regard careers in tourism and hospitality as “proper” jobs but that is not the case. We want to make sure that workers get quality training, fair pay and rights at work in an industry where that has sometimes been an issue in the past, and that young people can grasp the opportunities for career development. In an era where the future of work will be affected by developments like AI, tourism and hospitality is a sector that will always need great people to support its visitors and guests.

Over the coming period, we will be continuing our discussions and our thinking about what a Labour Government could do to support our tourism sector. The key links in the DCMS brief between tourism, heritage, culture and the arts, and the new Digital platforms are playing a bigger part than before. Labour understands these links, and we will work to spread the opportunities they represent to all parts of the country.

Mirror: Tory austerity strips more than 3,000 computers with internet from libraries

Tory austerity has seen more than 3,000 computers with internet access stripped from libraries, Labour reveals today.

Hard-up families and the elderly are likely to be harder hit by the loss as they rely on publicly-available terminals and are less likely to have the world wide web at home.

Research by the House of Commons Library shows there were 34,794 terminals with internet in libraries in England in 2009/10 - the last full year of a Labour government

But by 2016/17, after seven years of Tory cuts - including slashing town hall funding from Whitehall by 40% - the number plunged to 31,647.

In contrast, in Wales where Labour has been in power since the Welsh assembly was created in 1999, the number rose slightly from 2,840 to 2,891.

Shadow Libraries Minister Kevin Brennan said: “Tory austerity is decimating digital services in libraries up and down the country.

“This is in direct contravention of the Government’s own library targets and is particularly harmful at a time when the Government is increasingly demanding that vulnerable people apply for state support online.

“Libraries are crucial to our communities and they are resilient, but these continuing, savage cuts put our precious public library services at risk.

“It’s poorer people and the elderly who will be hit hardest by this as they often struggle to afford the internet at home.”

You can read the article in full here.

Blog: Representation in film matters - Labour will boost inclusivity

When Hollywood actor Frances McDormand ended her Oscar acceptance speech with the words “inclusion rider”, many people took to the internet to find out more. Like me, many will have found a Ted Talk by Dr Stacy Smith of the University of Southern California explaining what inclusion riders are, and why the film industry needs them so badly.

Dr Stacy Smith’s research found that across the top 100 films of 2015, almost half did not feature a black or African-American speaking character. 70 did not have any female Asian or Asian-American characters, and 84 films featured no female characters with a disability.

The lack of inclusion and representation in the Hollywood film industry is woeful. Inclusion riders, clauses that actors can choose to add to their contracts stipulating certain representation standards, are being adopted by many celebrities who want to make a difference. But action by a few A-listers is not enough.

In the Labour culture team, we understand that lack of diversity is a problem, and we want to bring about change. Our own data show that of the films that passed the cultural test associated with the UK Film Tax Relief in the last 3 years, only 15.6 per cent had directors and co-directors who were women.

We are determined to help to change this. Dr Smith joined me in parliament recently for a roundtable discussion with members of the British Screen Advisory Council and others from the creative industries about inclusion and diversity in the UK. It’s clear that the UK film industry is making progress, but there is more to be done.

For example, as a result of the BFI Diversity Standards, productions need to comply with a diversity checklist in order to receive funding from the National Lottery, Film 4 or BBC Film. This means that many independent British productions are already making changes. But what about the big Hollywood blockbusters made here in the UK? We want to ensure that they are meeting representation standards too.

I recently visited the Warner Bros. Studio near Watford. When JK Rowling sat in her local cafe writing the first Harry Potter book, she could hardly have anticipated how her story would lead to a huge investment in film production in Britain and a whole new studio complex.

As a result of this, and with the support of the UK Film Tax Credit, many more blockbuster films are being produced in Britain, from Mission Impossible to Ready Player One. As Stacy Smith has pointed out, in most films only a small number of key characters have to be a particular gender or ethnicity for the purposes of the story. A real effort to have a more diverse cast and crew could make a huge difference.

That’s where the Film Tax Relief comes in. Bigger productions may not need lottery funding, but many do benefit from a tax relief from the UK Treasury. In fact, the Film Tax Relief was worth £415m in 2016/17.

A Labour government would add inclusivity standards into the film and high-end TV tax reliefs, in addition to the cultural test already in place. And we will look at other tax credits in the creative industries to ensure that where public money is invested, inclusion is included.

Labour wants our creative industries to draw their workforce from the many, not the privileged few. We will use public policy to open up these opportunities to the most underrepresented groups in society who have been locked out for too long.

Kevin Brennan is MP for Cardiff West and a shadow digital, culture, media and sport minister.

Huffington Post: Labour say cultural assets should not be the preserve of a privileged few

Major artworks could be moved out of London and into town halls and cathedrals in the regions as part of a Government bid to widen access, HuffPost UK has learned.

Arts and Heritage Minister Michael Ellis has said he will publish plans to ensure items part of the national collection were “shared more strategically” across the country, by the end of the year.

Shadow arts minister Kevin Brennan said: “The Government must do more to help ensure that national cultural assets are shared fairly across the UK. Far too often, arts and culture are seen to be the preserve of a privileged few.

“Last year, around 4,600 artworks in the government’s own art collection were not on display. Labour has promised to widen the reach of the government art collection, and we will continue to push the Government to make sure that our shared cultural heritage is available to all.”

Guardian: Labour to address lack of diversity in British film with new tax relief rules

Labour has drawn up plans that would force film production companies to ensure gender equality and diversity on set, following fresh evidence of the slow pace of change in the movie industry.

“For far too long, the film and TV industries have been dominated by a small and unrepresentative segment of society,” said the shadow culture minister Kevin Brennan this weekend. “Bringing inclusion riders from Hollywood to HMRC could put a rocket booster under the industry that pays lip service to diversity, but hasn’t always delivered.”

The political move would make Britain the first country to take such a form of positive action and Labour’s announcement is timed to stimulate debate ahead of the opening of the annual Cannes film festival in May.

“With Cannes just weeks away, it’s important we start an international conversation about the ways in which policy-makers can contribute to the urgent need for greater diversity,” said Brennan. “We will consult fully before bringing forward proposals but updating the film and high-end TV tax relief to require inclusion and diversity as part of the qualifying criteria would be a major step forward. The pace of change has been too slow so far. We need action now.”

You can read the article in full here.

Speech: UK Government must not bury their head in the sand on musems

Local Museums
07 March 2018
Volume 637

I congratulate the hon. Member for Stirling (Stephen Kerr) on securing today’s debate. His tremendous enthusiasm for local museums shone through, particularly in his references to an antique nipple protector and an internationally renowned mutton bone. Only he could have brought those items to life in such a way during the debate. He also told us something I did not know, even though I used to teach history: that Mary Queen of Scots played football. I knew she had played golf, but not football— in a sense, it is a shame that she is not available for the current Scottish national team, given their recent fortunes.

The hon. Gentleman made an interesting proposal on indemnity, and he referred back to Scottish history at some length. The hon. Member for Edinburgh North and Leith (Deidre Brock) mentioned the lack of references to Scotland’s Gaelic heritage, and a much forgotten aspect of Scottish history that is not mentioned sufficiently is its Welsh heritage. The greatest poem in the Welsh ​language, the ancient poem “Y Gododdin” describes a battle between Welsh-speaking warriors from the south of Scotland at Catterick in North Yorkshire with the Anglo-Saxons. Indeed, the hon. Lady’s constituency’s name of Edinburgh derives etymologically from the old Welsh—I thought I would add that into the mix since we are having lengthy discussions on Scottish history. The hon. Member for Stirling also recognised that state funding is important, and I will come back to that point.

I congratulate the hon. Member for Ayr, Carrick and Cumnock (Bill Grant) who spoke about the Keir Hardie exhibition, and I will certainly visit that if I get the chance to go to his part of the world in future. He also described the Robert Burns Birthplace Museum, which again sounds like a wonderful place to visit. As he rightly said, museums “are worth it”, and I will come back to that later in my remarks.

My hon. Friend the Member for Hartlepool (Mike Hill) spoke about the importance of funding local museums, and he described some museums in his constituency. He spoke not just of museums themselves, but also of the associated services, which is an important point. The hon. Member for Henley (John Howell), our resident archaeologist, spoke about the review he undertook. He said that it is important that we do not lose our local museums, and I could not agree more. He also described some of the ways that he thought those museums could be made more sustainable.

It was all spoiled, however, by the hon. Member for Walsall North (Eddie Hughes) who introduced the “B-word” into the debate—we were all getting along so well until that point. He described how he thought that we as a country should “go forward into the world and dominate”—I think those were the words he used—as we have done in the past, although I am not quite sure what he has in mind. He also said that “our future has been fantastic in the past”, which I thought was the quote of the day. He described a wonderful sounding Black Country Living Museum in his constituency, which again sounds like a marvellous place to visit.

As hon. Members have made clear, local museums are a crucial part of the UK’s cultural life. They tell the story of specific communities up and down the country and help to preserve a continuous sense of community identity. People often feel an ownership of their local museum that they do not always feel about larger civic institutions. As a result, the audience of local museums can often be more diverse and representative than for other larger museums.

It would be remiss of me not to mention the St Fagans National Museum of History in my constituency of Cardiff West. Rather like the Black Country Living Museum, it is on a large site with buildings from all over Wales. It is a wonderful place to visit, and was recently the happy recipient of funding from the Heritage Lottery Fund. That is helping it to develop facilities, including a new “gweithdy”, as we say in Welsh—a place where people can go and try some of those crafts with those wonderful new facilities. If Members ever visit Cardiff, I suggest that they go to the edge of town and visit that museum.

For the reasons we have heard, local museums sometimes have to charge for entry. Constituency MPs are clearly aware of the benefits that local museums bring, but those museums are facing funding problems and threats ​of closure. There are ways we can try to overcome that fact, but we cannot divorce it from the UK Government’s cuts to the budgets of the devolved nations through the Barnett formula, and to local authorities. The Local Government Association states that there have been staggering cuts since 2010, and that central Government funding will be reduced by a further 54% by 2020. In that context, it is no surprise that local authorities struggle to maintain their services, particularly non-statutory services such as museums.

The Mendoza report, commissioned by the Department, identified museums that are run and supported by their local authority as those most vulnerable to funding pressures. Last week, on the same day the Government published museum visitor numbers, the Museum Taskforce published its report, which considered the funding of museums in England. It stated:

“Often it is less prosperous areas that are feeling the brunt of the crisis in funding and there is concern that further reductions in public finances will leave local authorities in less wealthy areas in particular, unable to fund non-statutory services such as museums.”

Councils are the biggest public sector investors in culture, including museums and galleries, and despite reductions in council funding from central Government, they valiantly continue to spend more than £1 billion per year on culture. That is a good investment because culture is a very good source of economic regeneration. I encourage local authorities of all stripes to continue to do that.

We need more than fine words about local museums from the Government; we need to put an end to the continuous cuts that are putting them at risk. It seems contradictory to protest the underfunding of local museums while propping up a Government who seem intent on cutting the funding available to local authorities. The hon. Member for Stirling was very fair in his remarks, and I hope Conservative Members put pressure on Ministers to ensure local authority funding is not cut so savagely that they are forced to cut local museums. The Government seem determined to ignore that at the moment, but I hope there will be a change of mind under the new Minister.

The Opposition Front-Bench team thought we would look into the issue ourselves when we were recently trying to get to the bottom of what is happening to our local museums, and we conducted a bit of research into the opening hours of local authority museums in England through hundreds of freedom of information requests. We gathered information from a sample of 250 local museums, which showed a huge decline in museum opening hours in the past seven years. Since 2010, more than 40% of local authority museums have decreased their opening hours by an average of 30%. Just across our sample, that is a loss of almost 23,500 opening hours since 2010.

Those results confirm that museums are bearing the brunt of the Government’s local authority cuts. At the end of the day, it should not be up to the Opposition, who have fewer resources, to collect such statistics via freedom of information requests. The Government should be doing that work themselves so they better understand the sectors they represent.

Our museums have to contend not only with the reduction in local authority funding, but with the reduced funding from the lottery and the potential loss of EU funding—the “B” word is not going to issue from my lips. Late last year, the Heritage Lottery Fund announced ​that it will distribute only £190 million in the coming financial year, down from £406 million in 2016-17. In addition, no new major grants will be awarded during this transitional year. The Government published their heritage statement only a few days after that announcement, and the document did not even mention the possible implications of that reduction in funds for museums and the wider heritage sector.

The Arts Council’s recent report on the EU funding that arts and cultural organisations in the UK receive shows that museums have received more than £13 million from regional funds alone. Despite that, in response to a written question, the Government failed to outline whether that funding will be preserved when we leave the European Union.

Like the hon. Member for Stirling, I have political differences with the Scottish Government in Holyrood, although probably for different reasons, but it is undeniable that the UK central Government’s austerity policies and the effect they have on the devolved nations and councils around the country are at the root of local museums’ problems. Budget decisions made in this House have a direct effect on funding and resourcing in devolved policy areas and local authorities. On all three of these issues—local council cuts, lottery funding reductions and EU funding reductions post-Brexit—the Government need to take responsibility and the actions necessary to ensure our proud cultural heritage continues to be available to the widest possible audience.

I do not want to be overwhelmingly negative, because this has been a jovial debate and a lot of exciting and inspiring work is taking place in our museums. As part of my Front-Bench brief, I have had the pleasure of visiting some fabulous museums around the country. I have been to country homes and seaside fishing museums, and later this month I will be travelling up to the north of England to see some exciting work taking place in the constituency of my hon. Friend the Member for Barnsley East (Stephanie Peacock), where there is a wonderful award-winning local museum.

We can all be proud of our cultural heritage in the UK. We should all be able to share it and feel that we have ownership of it. However, the Government must not bury their head in the sand. If they continue to do so, I will continue to draw attention to the challenges our museums face and to advocate on their behalf.

Blog: Air guitar - it's no joke

For professional musicians, touring can be a crucial source of income and a valuable way of building a reputation on the music circuit. However, musicians planning to take flight with their instruments often face more difficulties than they should.

Musicians report that airlines are increasingly requiring that musicians travelling with guitars, or other similarly sized instruments, purchase seats for their instruments or place them in the aircraft hold. Social media is abuzz with horror stories about damaged precious instruments and extra charges. Extra cost is a barrier, temperatures are often very low in the hold, and instruments can be damaged during transit.

This makes life for musicians much more difficult than it needs to be. For professional musicians, musical instruments are both essential for working and often very costly to purchase. I’ve heard first-hand about the anxiety musicians feel, worrying that their instruments might be damaged or facing additional charges for an extra seat on the aircraft. The difficulty and uncertainty of taking an instrument abroad can make touring a real challenge.

The Musicians Union has raised this issue repeatedly with airlines over recent years, but it has still not been fully resolved. That’s why I started EDM 775, which already has cross-Party support, and raised airline charges for musicians in the House of Commons. I am calling on the airlines to agree to a code of practice to give travelling musicians consideration, fair and consistent treatment, as well as peace of mind.

In the Government’s recent reshuffle, Matt Hancock was promoted to Secretary of State for Culture. While there are many areas where Labour and Tory culture policy will clash, I am hopeful that this is an area where we can work together for the benefit of working musicians. Taking a proactive step to resolve this issue would be a positive, productive way for Matt Hancock to begin his tenure as Culture Secretary.

I’ve written to him asking if he will take up this issue with his colleagues in the Department for Transport, and call in the airlines, together with the MU and other interested parties, for a roundtable discussion to try to agree an industry code of practice for musicians travelling with musical instruments. I've raised the issue with the Transport Secretary too.

This USA’s Department of Transport have already issued regulations which could provide a useful springboard for discussions.

Airlines’ treatment of travelling musicians can cause stress, anxiety, and damage to costly instruments. But it could be largely resolved with a common sense, consensual solution that wouldn’t impose serious cost on business. In fact, by working together to establish trust and goodwill between the parties, everyone could benefit.

Air guitar – it’s no joke.

Will Ministers meet to solve airline problems for musicians?

Topical Questions
18 January 2018
Volume 634

Kevin Brennan (Cardiff West) (Lab): Has the Secretary of State had a chance to look at early-day motion 775 about taking musical instruments on to aeroplanes? In his coming discussions on aviation, will he take the opportunity to meet the Culture Secretary to talk about how we might solve this real problem for musicians?

Chris Grayling: An airline’s hand luggage policy is obviously a matter for the airline, but I am very happy to have a discussion with the hon. Gentleman about the issue. There may not be a simple solution, but I am always happy to talk to hon. Members about the challenges they face.

Campaign for an Agent of Change principal to help protect music venues

Cardiff’s ‘Save Womanby Street Campaign has been praised in the House of Commons today as MPs seek to recreate the campaign’s success in Wales by changing the law in England.

A new Bill supported by Cardiff MPs would introduce the ‘Agent of Change’ planning principle in England - just as the Welsh Government has pledged to do in Wales in response to the Womanby Street campaigners.

In a speech to introduce the Bill John Spellar MP for Warley, said:  “There are already moves being made around the country to address these concerns, many grass roots campaigns are being mounted to save local venues.”

“Two of my co-sponsors, the Members for Cardiff West Kevin Brennan  and Cardiff Central Jo Stevens have been supporting the Save Womanby Street campaign, along with the members for Cardiff North and Cardiff South and Penarth, and that has led directly to the adoption of the Agent of Change principal across Wales. A welcome adoption by the Welsh Labour Government.”

Cardiff West MP, Kevin Brennan, who strongly supported the ‘Save Womanby Street’ campaign is Labour’s Shadow Culture Minister and has been campaigning for the rest of the UK to follow Wales to protect music venues in planning law.

“I think it was only right to acknowledge the ‘Save Womanby Street’ campaigners because it’s a brilliant example of how well-organised public activism in our Music City of Cardiff can spread positive change across the country,” said Kevin.

“The ‘Save Womanby Street’ campaign was started in Cardiff by a group of passionate members of the public determined to protect grass roots music in our city. Their passion sparked interest and campaigning across the UK.”

“The Scottish Government, the London Mayor, Sadiq Khan, and now the UK Government are all considering following the Welsh Government’s pledge to adopt the Agent of Change principle into planning law.”

“This is an important step in helping to protect music venues because it will put the onus on property developers to protect new residential buildings from noise and rather than loading the costs and bureaucracy onto existing music venues, often forcing their closure”

“With 30 million people attending UK music events last year, it’s vital we have the music venues available for the nation to continue our love of live music and grow the talent of the future.”

The Bookseller: Kevin Brennan has called on minister to offer support to libraries

Shadow libraries minister Kevin Brennan, meanwhile, has called on the libraries minister to offer "urgent support" to the councils whose library services will be impacted by Carillion's collapse. He has also called for an investigation into the outsourcing of library services to other private companies.

"The collapse of Carillion has put countless jobs at risk across the country, including in the libraries sector", Brennan said. "Library services are crucial to our communities and hard-working staff deserve better."

He said that in 2016, over 400 libraries in England were commissioned libraries, meaning that they had been transferred to a separate trust or organisation, either a commercial or social enterprise. A number had been transferred to Carillion.

"I am calling on the Libraries Minister to work with ministerial colleagues across government to offer urgent support to local authorities whose library services are impacted by Carillion’s collapse," Brennan said. "He should also review how many commissioned library services have been outsourced to private commercial enterprises like Carillion and whether any are at risk.”

You can read the article in full here.

Guardian: 'Institutional' male bias in government's art collection, says Labour

The government’s art collection reveals “institutional bias” against female artists, according to Labour. Research by the party showed that about three-quarters of works acquired in recent years were created by men.

Figures from the shadow culture team suggest that around 265 works by men and just 80 by women were collected over the last five years for which data is available, between 2011-2012 and 2015-2016.

Labour said the imbalance in the gender of the artists behind works acquired in recent times showed the government’s art collection was not setting the right example.

Kevin Brennan, the shadow arts minister, said the situation was “not good enough” and called for a change in policy.

“Only about a quarter of the work acquired by the government art collection in recent years is by women,” he said. “Female artists are at least as talented as their male counterparts and the government should be setting an example by getting rid of the institutionalised bias in their acquisitions policy.”

Read in full at The Guardian here.

The Tories face a creative test in Wednesday’s budget

The creative industries are one of the great British economic success stories. We’re not only a world leader in culture and creative output, our creative businesses are a huge economic driver that contribute £87bn to the economy, incidentally more than either car manufacturing or aerospace, and employ two million people. Our creative businesses are admired and they export all over the world.

But this success doesn’t come about on its own and will not last without support. That’s why it’s vital that this economic powerhouse of a sector is not left out in the cold during tomorrow’s Budget.

With Brexit negotiations stalling, and the spectre of a calamitous no-deal scenario hanging over us, it is more important than ever that the government has a strategy in place to ensure the continued growth and success of our creative industries. But while the papers in the run up to the Budget have been littered with nuggets about investment in R&D for tech, driverless cars and housebuilding, there has been little to nothing about what the budget will offer our creative industries.

When the government made the creative industries the “fifth pillar” of their industrial strategy there was hope that the needs of this sector would be put centre stage. Unfortunately that hope has not yet been realised.

First among the concerns of the sector is the threat posed by a hard Brexit. Some 45 per cent of all our creative industry exports go to EU countries and 6.7 per cent of people working in the creative industry in Britain citizens of other EU nations.

In some of our strongest growth sectors, such as video games and visual effects, up to 30 per cent of those employed in the sector are EU nationals. We heard David Davis reassuring City finance workers they would get a preferential deal that met their immigration needs – but what about such a deal for the creative industries? Any Brexit deal which leaves us with severely diminished access to the single market and customs union and denies British businesses access to EU talent would be disastrous and compromise this strong record of growth.

Another major concern, all the more pressing with the potential loss of EU talent, is our growing skills gap both at secondary and FE and HE level. The effect of the EBacc is well known. There has been a nine per cent drop in take-up of arts subjects in the last year, with arts GCSE entries failing by 100,000 since 2014.

Despite design and designer fashion being the single-fastest growing sector in the creative industries, which saw its exports grow 53 per cent between 2014 and 2015, design and technology GCSE has seen a fall of 11 per cent since 2016. The UK Commission for Employment and Skills estimated in 2015 that the creative sector would need 1.2 million new workers by 2022 to sustain growth. With our talent pipeline being choked off at secondary school level then this potential will be very hard to fulfil.

The other factor critical to growth is access to finance. Despite the success of the creative sector, many businesses still struggle to access the finance they need to get started, and scale up, because a lack of experience and understanding from finance about the opportunities in the sector.

The Budget would be a major opportunity to champion the investment opportunities offered by the creative industries and to show leadership by government putting serious investment into creative clusters across the country, as recommended in the recent Bazalgette review. Rather than a new £500m five year creative clusters programme, as Bazalgette recommended, the government has announced a much smaller £80m fund, half of which will come from industry rather than government. This is less than a tenth of the £1bn cultural capital fund to invest in creative and cultural infrastructure and development that Labour committed to in our manifesto.

Ministers talk the talk on supporting the sector but this Budget is a test of whether they mean it. Creative talent must be nurtured and we cannot afford to leave the creative industries out in the cold.