Speeches by Frith.

“Within the conversation that we are having about AI, we sense that the US and Europe have been faster in getting their laws together. The Secretary of State’s view was that it was too blunt an instrument in some instances in Europe. Are we slightly behind the curve on this?”

“Thank you, Chair. I should declare an interest: my wife is a jobbing actor and has done voiceover work as well, which she will be pleased to have had an advert for here, I am sure. It is impressive to see you wrestling with the real issues and—by your word, Nick—not screwing over the sector that you are working within.…”

“Do you hope that we will keep the divergence between our laws and the US state of play, and that if we seek to protect the workforce that the US laws do, we need to have different guidance when—”

“You had better get a move on if you are going.”

“That is great. Nick, you talked about unintendeds and wanting to work with us. As we develop the conversation, it feels very much like you are trying to be the honest broker, but also slightly reporting from the frontline on the developments—both the good stuff that we should seize and the opportunity that we will come…”

“Thank you, Chair. I should declare an interest: my wife is a jobbing actor and has done voiceover work as well, which she will be pleased to have had an advert for here, I am sure. It is impressive to see you wrestling with the real issues and—by your word, Nick—not screwing over the sector that you are working within.…”

“Within the conversation that we are having about AI, we sense that the US and Europe have been faster in getting their laws together. The Secretary of State’s view was that it was too blunt an instrument in some instances in Europe. Are we slightly behind the curve on this?”

“Do you hope that we will keep the divergence between our laws and the US state of play, and that if we seek to protect the workforce that the US laws do, we need to have different guidance when—”

“You had better get a move on if you are going.”

“On to artificial intelligence now, do you prefer the opt-in model for the protection of creatives as the champion of the creative sector around the development of AI and rights?”

“I guess in terms of the application of the law that it will bring for us in the lower league, it is the backstop—to coin a phrase once familiar to this House during the Brexit years. This backstop is really about whether or not the fans get penalised for dodgy owners. Short of resetting and having new owners or putting…”

“Thank you. On the Football Governance Bill, it is good to see its progress. In a touch of class by the former sports Minister Tracey Crouch, somebody we both admire, she called me the day she started her fan-led review to say that a lot of the prompt for this was through the heartache that fans in Bury had gone through…”

“Good afternoon, Secretary of State and Permanent Secretary. I have a quick sharpener to start off with. Have you been briefed on reports in the news on a rise in antisemitism in the arts? Is it a concern to you when publishers, artists and writers are being described, or having their work described as “too Jewish”, and…”

“I appreciate that; that is good counsel. I would just say that when it comes to the brass tacks of it, for the creatives it is a pretty straightforward in or out.”

“My final point, or rather my question, is that you have not said whether opt-in or opt-out is your preference and you have not given us any clarity on when, other than imminent. I am sensing it is not 2024, but can we expect it before Easter?”

“Before Christmas?”

“This year?”

“When will that consultation be?”

“Is there a risk, though, that one Department is clearly motivated—or should be—by the opt-in argument and the other is motivated by the opt-out, with Chris Bryant in the middle? How do you achieve that balance? It is a pretty binary argument that the creatives are making about what we need here.”

“We talked at the beginning about the risk register the Department has. For creatives, the top of that risk register is the threat posed by artificial intelligence and a Government attracted by and to the shiny thing on the hill at the expense of what we all have, what we all enjoy and everything else now. They see it p…”