I am most grateful to the noble Lord for his e-mail. I did not interpret it as asking for my permission because no permission would be needed. I treated it as a matter of courtesy that he was letting me know that he had tabled a similar amendment.
At this point I should say that I am in some personal difficulty today. I am speaking on the Energy Bill later and I ought to try to get back to the Second Reading debate as swiftly as I can. I will do my best to listen when the noble Lord, Lord Stevenson, moves that amendment but I am sure that he will understand if I have to desert the Committee for the Chamber.
Returning to Amendment 25F—I have amendments in the same group—the encouraging point in my noble friend’s reply in the debates on the ERR Bill was that he described himself as the Minister with the duty to promote and encourage intellectual property. We have taken that to heart. So I say at once that we welcome the clauses in the Bill which now provide for the annual report because this seems to be a valuable addition to the armoury of measures which are necessary to encourage and promote intellectual property in all its forms.
The noble Lord, Lord Stevenson, was quite right to say that we think the report ought to go wider than the Government have so far envisaged. I attach a lot of importance to that. I am grateful to the noble Lords, Lord Stevenson and Lord Young of Norwood Green, who have added their names to our amendment. Perhaps I should have added mine to theirs but that would have meant that I would have to stay, which may be difficult in the circumstances.
The imposition of a duty to produce an annual report on the work of the IPO in that form is welcome. It reflects the words that were used by the IPO’s chief executive John Alty, when he gave evidence to the Committee in the other place,
“as ensuring the IP framework supported innovation and growth”.
These are now reflected in the words in the Bill. However, it does expose one of the difficulties we face and which was faced to some extent at the last sitting of the Committee. The IPO has always claimed that weakening copyright with more and more exceptions will generate economic growth. This attitude has fuelled the anxieties of those who depend on the protection of IP for their living.
Amendment 26, to which I am grateful that others have added their names, is intended to make it completely clear that the report has to show that it is,
“the creation and exploitation of intellectual property”,
that has contributed to growth and innovation. If it is not protected, if there are too many exceptions, the incentive for people to do the work that creates and generates IP is to that extent weakened. As the noble Lord has already said, if we are a country that has to live on its wits and depend on its inventions and innovation to keep ahead of the rest of the world—in some cases I fear that we need to be catching up with the rest of the world, but that is very much part of this Government’s whole approach to these matters—we must recognise the very important role that IP plays in all this. The issues were raised very dramatically at Second Reading by my noble friend Lord Clement-Jones; I will not repeat the words but they are at col. 858.
I will deal with the other two amendments rather more briefly. The clause says that the Secretary of State should lay the report before Parliament. I do not think that that is enough. The legislation should call for a Statement, including the findings of the report and the action the Government intend to take. It should not just be lost in the tangled undergrowth of the huge tide—sorry, I am mixing my metaphors—of written reports to Parliament, of which there appear to be an increasing number. This is sufficiently important that we should require a Statement by a Minister in the House, which can of course be subject to question and answer. It will be open then to individual Members to decide if they wish to take steps to have the report debated.
Amendment 28 seeks to demonstrate the link between the role in promoting innovation and economic growth and the protection and promotion of IP; otherwise, one may find that intellectual property and rights owners’ ability to protect and monetise their rights will be seriously weakened in what it appears will be presented in the guise of pursuing economic growth. The Government are consulting on how they define and measure the creative industries in such a way that digital and tech companies will be classified as creative industries. I look forward to my noble friend correcting me, but I am concerned that, taken together, these two things could mean that the relaxation of IP rights, particularly copyright, would actually benefit the creative industries, when in truth they would benefit US-based and, increasingly, China-based global tech companies to the detriment of the UK creatives. Therefore, this amendment is intended as a safeguard for UK creatives and to ensure that the IPO takes into account how its actions affect those who create and own intellectual property.
As I have said, Clause 20 is a very welcome step forward and I would not want anything I have said to detract from that. But, as the noble Lord, Lord Stevenson, said, it needs to make it more explicit that the objectives are dependent on safeguarding the rights of IP owners.
3.45 pm