Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Bill

My Lords, I support this amendment, to which I have added my name. I support everything my noble friend Lord Clement-Jones has already said. This amendment would go some way to mitigate risks to the individual creators, without whom there is no creative economy. We have here more risks of unintended consequences of the government proposal for extended collective licensing. Already before the passage of the Bill, there is renewed pressure on individual creators to sign away to publishers all their rights, including rights to income from extended collective licensing. While creators are vulnerable to the take-it-or-leave-it approach in contracts offered by powerful organisations, the likelihood is that creators will thus be deprived of the compensation for the use intended by the drafters. I should add that we have had so much correspondence in this regard that we are looking to my noble friend the Minister for strong reassurance.