Commons Sense

House of Commons · Ministers' Questions

Covid-19: Live Music

Thursday 10 December 2020 · 3 questions

Summarised by AI from the official record, so it can contain mistakes.

Read the full transcript on Parliament.uk

At a glance

Answered 1 Partly answered 2 Not answered 0

Key points

  • Theresa Villiers asked about steps to help the live music sector amid the covid-19 outbreak.
  • The Minister highlighted 500 million in the culture recovery fund, a fifth of which went to the music sector.
  • Julian Knight stressed the importance of securing insurance for live music events to ensure a festival season next year.

Topics (select to filter)

Questions & Answers

Q1 Theresa Villiers Con
Economy Culture, Media & Sport
Context

The live music sector has been severely impacted by the economic effects of the COVID-19 outbreak, leading to concerns about business continuity and job security.

Question

What steps he is taking to help the live music sector respond to the economic effect of the covid-19 outbreak?

Answer from Caroline Dinenage

In addition to more than £100 billion of general business support, our unprecedented investment of £1.57 billion in the culture recovery fund has seen more than £500 million handed out to organisations across England to date, a fifth of which has gone to the music sector. Those funds are providing valuable protection to live music venues and festivals, and to all the valuable jobs that rely on them.

Answered
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Q2 Theresa Villiers Con
Culture, Media & Sport Business & Trade
Context

The live music sector requires certainty regarding insurance coverage to proceed with planning and contracts ahead of the spring and summer seasons.

Question

I know the whole sector is very grateful for the support it has received from the Government, but if we are going to get music festivals and major events on again from the spring and summer, businesses need to be signing contracts and spending money now. Will the Minister give serious consideration to Government support for an indemnity or insurance scheme so that they can make those decisions in the confidence that, if there is a third wave, their losses will be mitigated?

Answer from Caroline Dinenage

I thank my right hon. Friend for that question. I am well aware of the concerns about and the challenges of securing insurance for live music events. It is something we are looking at very carefully, but the key is for the industry to build an evidence base that demonstrates that insurance coverage is the only barrier to events being able to take place. That is what we managed to prove with the film and TV production restart scheme. In the meantime, the remaining £258 million of the culture recovery fund will very shortly be made available to provide extra support.

Partly answered

Not addressed: The specific ask for a government-backed indemnity or insurance scheme was not addressed with concrete commitments but mentioned as under consideration.

How: Looking At This

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Q3 Julian Knight Con
Economy Culture, Media & Sport
Context

There are concerns about the lack of reinsurance underwriting that could prevent arts and music festivals from being planned with confidence, especially due to long lead times required for insurance.

Question

On a similar theme, the UK is the world leader in music and arts festivals. The sector is worth £12 billion and supports many thousands of highly skilled jobs, as well as being the financial lifeblood of the nation's musicians. However, there will be no festival season next year unless insurance is underwritten in case of covid disruption. First, will the Minister meet with me and MPs from across the House to see how that reinsurance can be put in place? Secondly, noting her answer to the previous question, does she recognise that with a minimum lead time of six months, the reinsurance needs to be in place now before the likes of Glastonbury can commit and, if it is not, those festivals effectively cannot be put in place. We need them to be able to sign those contracts today, rather than to wait several months and then have an insurance scheme in place.

Answer from Caroline Dinenage

I know this is something that my hon. Friend cares deeply about and that he met the Secretary of State recently to discuss it. Festivals are a vibrant and integral part of our creative community and our economy, and I am well aware that many will take decisions very soon about whether they can go ahead next year, so this is an urgent situation. There is a sub-group of my entertainment and events working group looking specifically at how we can get festivals reopened. I have met in the past few weeks with representatives from festivals in Edinburgh, and only yesterday with representatives from festivals on the Isle of Wight.

Partly answered

Not addressed: The specific ask for a meeting was not directly addressed but acknowledged as an important matter.

How: Under Review

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