Speeches by Bryant.

“This has been a trajectory over the last few years, obviously. Certainly, if we had had the cliff edge that was threatened in relation to business rates, I think you would have seen considerably more businesses close. I am also the Tourism Minister, and there is a whole series of issues and challenges that face a lot o…”

“It is not my Department.”

“My reading of how we responded to your report is slightly different. Yes, we disagreed about the fan-led review because I feel I am the fan-led review. I am a fan and also parts of the sector had already done their own fan-led review, which fed into the work that you produced. We wanted to proceed at pace rather than w…”

“I do not want any small music venues to close, and that is why we are working as fast as we possibly can on the levy. I think in the end that is going to make the single biggest difference. As I say, we are looking at whether or not the agent of change principle, which we think should be part of the equation now, shoul…”

“Most of the people I have spoken to have said, “Can we have a cut in VAT?” I have said, “You know that is going to be very difficult for us to achieve.” Then that is normally the end of the conversation. I am sure everybody would much prefer us to cut all their taxation, but we end up at the same point. The parallel of…”

“I am very happy to see anything anybody can bring to us, but it has to be very convincing to be able to say we are going to radically reform the VAT structure for one particular industry. My anxiety would be that the theatre industry would make exactly the same argument. You end up with an awful lot of parts of the cre…”

“I would not link the two, no.”

“We have had lots, and Alastair has had a lot of it, so I am going to hand over to Alastair for that. But the single point I make is it is unlikely that we would be able to persuade HMRC to change how VAT operates solely for this levy.”

“That is like me telling you what is going to be in my plan, and I am not publishing it here today. There is stuff I am working on still, so on the Creative Remuneration Working Group, which was set up under the previous Government, I think we are making significant progress. I would like the record labels to move close…”

“I am pretty focused on it, if I am honest. We have had quite robust conversations in some of the meetings I have been in about trying to make sure that we deliver on all of this. Some of this is not entirely within our gift, so the issues around creative education and music in schools is of course a DfE responsibility,…”

“I would say two things. First, I am doing my bit as part of trying to make sure that we get a good outcome in relation to EU touring. I am not sure quite when that will come and what part of the process it will be, but I was really pleased that the EU Cultures Ministers invited me to their informal meeting in Warsaw, a…”

“I do not think the big issue is money. I think the big issue is bureaucracy and legal constraints. No, is the direct answer to your question, but we will think about it. There is some money that is provided through the Arts Council to artists who are touring, but I think the specific set of issues are more to do with f…”

“It is one of two Departments that I work in.”

“My general principle about things that I read in newspapers is that some of them might be true and some of them might not be true, and my working assumption is that this is in the latter category. But, if I am honest, I have not investigated it very much, and it certainly is not for me to decide. This is one of those m…”

“With a Minister for the Arts in it.”

“We are a very small Department. I think when you do the total budget and you do a pie chart, we normally come in the “other” category. There is not much fat in DCMS. I think it is a great Department, and people work extremely hard to be able to deliver on very tiny budgets extraordinary differences to people’s lives. O…”

“Number one, if the data Bill remains as the data Bill entered the House of Lords, without any reference to copyright, British copyright law will not have changed at all and will be as robust as it ever was, and the protections for copyright holders will be as robust as they ever were. You have heard me many times, both…”

“That might be a debate for tomorrow afternoon, I am afraid.”

“Sorry, can I just go back on one other point? Sorry, Dame Caroline, there is one other point I should perhaps make, which is that—again I have said this in the Chamber, but I will say this again here—I do not think for an instant that the creative industries are opposed to technological innovation or innovation of any …”

“Yes, although how they make people feel is part of the firepower, if you like. But yes, of course. The number of £124 billion of GVA is repeated by everybody, and quite rightly so, and there will probably be new numbers as well soon, which will probably be higher because this is a sector that is growing faster than any…”