TRIPS Council Matters

Thank you, Mr Chairman… On this point, Mr Chair, look, I fear that we may repeat some of the things that we said in the meeting on Friday.

But let me first of all welcome the status report delivered by the Chair of the TRIPS Council on item 16. It is a factual, objective, and accurate report of the developments at the TRIPS Council. Like others, we have been meeting other delegations bilaterally; delegations on all sides of the debate. While, clearly, we are not yet in a position to reach consensus on these issues, we are grateful for the discussions we have had, and the constructive tone struck by many delegations including this morning.

We don’t have a lot of time left before MC12, as you have said at the start, and therefore we do think that it is best to try and focus on the areas of potential convergence rather than on the areas of disagreement. I think what we all, I hope, agree on is the need for a substantive trade and health outcome at the Ministerial. An outcome which promotes production and supports the equitable distribution of affordable, safe, and effective vaccines, diagnostics, and therapeutics.

And we continue to believe that the IP system has played a positive role in enabling our response to this pandemic. That’s not to say that we don’t deny the lack of vaccines in many parts of the world, or the need to find extra ways to ensure that those vaccines can be delivered effectively. But we also need to reflect on the role of the IP system in the future. In facing a pandemic, the virus which continues to mutate and where we need to be able to develop not only effective vaccines against those mutations but effective therapeutics as well. And we welcome the recent innovations in therapeutics that have come out of what is, after all, a highly successful IP system.

So, we look forward to finding a way forward on these issues, to work with other delegations, and, indeed, the Secretariat on them, and to ensure that we can produce, at the Ministerial next week, a multifaceted outcome on trade and health that is worthy of the pandemic which we face and of the role which this Organisation can play in tackling this issue like so many others.

Thank you.

Preparations for the Twelfth Session of the Ministerial Conference

Chair, let me just pick up two points of substance because I don’t want to repeat what was said on TRIPS and other things. First about export restrictions and second about transparency. And let me just echo and note a concern expressed particularly by developing countries including our colleague from Chad this afternoon about export restrictions. Throughout this pandemic, Members of this organisation have repeatedly called for restraint on the imposition of export restrictions on medical goods as well as food. And many Members have quite eloquently described the effect of those waves of export restrictions. How they’ve reduced global supply, how they’ve led them to suffer from price spikes, especially amongst those countries that lack, if I may say, the economic resilience of more developed economies. Faced with those challenges, many vulnerable economies have at times felt the need to restrict their own exports – a vicious circle. We, for our part, are grateful to those Members who have stood up and made those calls for restraint on producers applying restrictions. We have listened to those calls and we agree with them.

As well as restraint, Members from across this Organisation have called also for transparency on those restrictions that are implemented. Again, we have listened to those calls, and fully support them. We stand behind the language agreed by the G20 – since adopted by others including the APEC group – that any measures on essential goods must be temporary, transparent, targeted, and proportionate.

We are a producer of a number of medical goods – while, like pretty much everyone in the room, we need to import many other such medical goods. So we want to be clear that the United Kingdom would be willing to step up to take political commitments next week, in this Declaration, around the fact that substantial producers should recognize their particular responsibility for exercising restraint and ensuring transparency.

So, we would just encourage other Members in this room – those who are also fortunate enough to be substantial producers of goods that are in huge demand globally, during an unprecedented crisis – to likewise step up to the plate, and take a political commitment recognising that particular responsibility.

Chair, before closing I would underscore the importance of setting an ambitious action plan, which will ensure meaningful and urgent discussions post MC12 on how the WTO can continue to the recovery, and foster resilience for the future.

Work Programme on Electronic Commerce – Report by the Chair

The UK continues to be a strong supporter of the work programme on e-commerce and we align ourselves with the statement made earlier by Switzerland on behalf of the UK and other Members. We strongly support continuing work under the work programme on e-commerce and have played an active role in those discussions. Mr Chairman, we have set out on countless occasions the value of the moratorium so for the sake of time we will thank colleagues from Singapore and Thailand for their very pertinent comments in respect of the value that their countries find in the moratorium.

As we said on Friday at TNC HoDs, we cannot imagine something more difficult to explain to British business groups than the suggestion that we might not renew the e-commerce moratorium at the Ministerial Conference next week. So, with all due respect, we call on all fellow Members and representatives here to support extending the moratorium and the work of the work programme at the Ministerial in the interests of certainty, consumers, and business, and to show that the WTO is not just back in business but backing business.

Thank you very much.

A Smooth Transition Package in Favour of Members Graduating from the LDC Category

Let me start by retracing the thanks that have been expressed by so many others to the LDC Group for bringing forward this proposal, and also for the changes that they have made to it in the course of their discussions with us and a number of other delegations, and for their openness to that sort of dialogue.

We’re extremely supportive and keen to ensure that there is a positive outcome for LDCS at the Ministerial next week and we remain absolutely committed to supporting LDCs in their graduation efforts including through our own trade preferences scheme and technical assistance – and graduation in this field, as in many others, should be a cause for celebration.

At the moment we can’t as a delegation commit to a specific number of years, particularly as we’re engaged – as you’ll know, Mr Chairman – in establishing our new Developing Countries Trading Scheme, which aspires to be more ambitious and more pro-growth than our existing scheme.

However, we remain very much open to working with members – including LDCs – on the wider proposals to ensure a smooth transition from the category of LDCs, which, as I’ve said, we think is a positive development in and of itself. We are concerned, as I know some others in this room are, about the proposed unconditionality of the measures and we’d like to understand how constructive it would be to have the sub-committee looking at issues around special and differential treatment, which are obviously issues of much wider concern in this organisation and where we have not yet, sadly, reached consensus.

Thank you very much.

The Legal Status of Joint Statement Initiatives and their Negotiated Outcomes by India, South Africa and Namibia

I would dearly love, as I’m sure would many people in this room, for us to be witness to a flourishing series of multilateral initiatives that were going to bear fruit next week at the Ministerial. Sadly, that is not where we are. Where we are is that the energy in this Organisation lies in a series of plurilateral initiatives – JSIs – that are actually addressing some of the most important issues facing the world today. Whether that be women entrepreneurs, the 95% of global business that are MSMEs, the Services sector through the domestic services regulation, the environment and the climate challenge that we’re facing. This, unfortunately, for better or worse, is where the vitality, the innovation, and the ideas lie in this Organisation.

So, the real debate we should be having today is about how we harness that energy, that innovation, that creativity for the benefit of the Organisation as a whole. Not how to stifle the one bit of creativity that we have in this Organisation.

Thank you very much.

Proposed General Council Decision on Procedures to Enhance Transparency and Improve Compliance with Notification Requirements under WTO Agreements

Let me first of all welcome this proposal that is being brought to the General Council now for the third time and let me also welcome Colombia as an additional Member. As the UK said before, and echoing the comments just made by our Canadian colleague, transparency lies right at the heart of this organisation. And anything more we can do to enhance it, as this proposal does, I think should be very welcome. Let me thank the way also that cosponsors have engaged with other across this Organisation and thank you to those Members who have engaged with us in that effort as well. And I hope that when Members look at this proposal they will see that co-sponsors have attempted to take on board the comments, suggestions, and concerns from others across this Organisation. And I very much hope that in the few days that we have before us, before our Ministers gather in this building, that we will find other countries following the example set by Colombia this morning to join this proposal.

Proposed Ministerial Decision on strengthening resilience and preparedness through trade facilitation – Costa Rica, Japan, Mexico, Norway, Panama, Uruguay and the United States (WT/GC/W/836)

Thank you very much, Mr Chairman, for tabling this Ministerial Decision on strengthening resiliency and preparedness through trade facilitation. I think we all recognise the benefits that the Trade Facilitation Agreement has brought to Members across this Organisation. And of course, we have discussed those benefits a great deal in relation to our efforts to mitigate the effects of the pandemic and to recover from it economically. We very much share the view that trade facilitation is an important strand therefore of the WTO’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic and indeed to its preparation for future pandemics.

The decision proposed by the United States and by the cosponsors will provide a clear structure to the committee on trade facilitation’s post-MC12 workplan so that Members can share best practice regarding this and future crises within the framework of the TFA. With this in mind, I’d like to thank the United States for their bilateral engagement on this and I am delighted to confirm this morning that the United Kingdom will co-sponsor this decision and I would encourage other Members across this organisation to look favourably upon it and join us.

Universities will be required to improve outcomes for disadvantaged children by driving up education standards in schools and colleges in the local community, which could include providing activities like tutoring.

They will also be required to set new ambitious targets to support students throughout their time at university by reducing dropout rates and improving progression into high paid, high skilled jobs.

Universities will be expected to improve education outcomes for disadvantaged students in the schools and colleges across the region. Measures could include running a summer school, supporting curriculum development or offering students and lecturers to tutor pupils. There will be a shift away from working only with those pupils with the potential to go onto university as well as marketing activities that just benefit universities to an approach that improves education attainment.

The Government has also today (24 November) announced £8million investment to remove barriers to post-graduate research for Black, Asian and minority ethnic students, with projects looking at admissions and targeted recruitment.

Minister for Higher and Further Education Michelle Donelan will say:

We need to be making getting on as important as getting in.

Gone will be the days where universities were recruiting students onto courses that lead to dropping out, frustration and unemployment. A student’s outcome after university needs to be as important to providers as a student’s grades before university.

We need to send a message to every disadvantaged young person thinking about higher education that they will have the support through school, college and university to get there and achieve a positive outcome for themselves.

In a speech today, Higher and Further Education Minister Michelle Donelan will tell universities to rewrite their plans around access and participation with tough, ambitious targets to increase the proportion of students studying degree apprenticeships, higher technical qualification or part time courses. All access and participation work will need to be focused on actions that support learners, with needless complexity and bureaucracy cut out.

The reboot of universities access and participation plans will play a key role in the Government’s levelling up agenda and the national focus on improving the skills gap in disadvantaged areas. The Office for Students will ensure that the new plans focus on the following priorities:

• Ensuring that universities move from just getting disadvantaged students through the door, to admitting them onto courses that deliver positive outcomes; universities should tackle dropout rates and support them through university to graduation and into high skilled, high paid jobs.
• Working more with schools and colleges to raise standards in schools so students get better qualifications and have more options and can choose the path that is right for them.
• Offering more courses that are linked to skills and flexible learning such as degree apprenticeships, higher technical qualifications and part time courses.
• Cutting out complexity and bureaucracy from access and participation plans, giving universities more time to focus on disadvantaged learners.

The reform will be the first task for John Blake who today has been appointed as new Director for Fair Access and Participation at the Office for Students. After a career in teaching and education policy, John now leads on policy and political issues related to schools, education, and wider social impact for Ark, a charity which operates one of the most successful multi-academy trusts in the country, Ark Schools. He will draw on his experience of highly successful schools and social reform charities in order to improve academic attainment through the country’s world class universities.

The Department for Education has been clear that universities’ plans should be clear and comprehensible to students and parents and should be available on university websites.

John Blake, new Director for Fair Access and Participation at the Office for Students said:

I am delighted to be appointed as Director for Fair Access and Participation. I look forward to working with universities and colleges to ensure that young people from all backgrounds are able to access the education that is right for their achievements and aspirations.

I am especially keen to see further development of partnerships between higher education providers and groups of schools to improve attainment for disadvantaged young people throughout their schooling, providing them the knowledge, skills and experiences they need to access higher education.

But attainment and access are only the first steps: they need to be matched by participation and success. It is crucial that students are able to study on high quality courses which meet their needs, and are then supported so they are ready to embark on rewarding lives and careers after graduating.

Dame Rachel de Souza, DBE, Children’s Commissioner for England said:

There’s no doubt pupils benefit from additional educational interactions with University lecturers and students. I saw an example of it first hand when I was a teacher.

As Children’s Commissioner I have conducted this year, the largest survey of children, ever, one thing that came through very strongly from children across the country and across all backgrounds was how much a good, stable career and future was a key priority for them.

Post pandemic, children are ready to learn, keen to get on, but they want the best support to help them achieve that goal. Universities and schools should the play the most important part in making that a seamless journey from childhood to career.

Alongside this work, there is a intervention to ensure improved access and participation at a postgraduate level. Thirteen new projects, worth nearly £8million, will attempt to tackle persistent inequalities that create barriers for Black, Asian and minority ethnic students to access and take part in postgraduate research (PGR). The projects, worth nearly £8 million, are innovative in scope, scale and focus to an extent that has not been seen in England before. Delivered over the next four years, they will improve access into research, enhance research culture and the experience for Black, Asian and minority ethnic PGR students, and diversify and enhance routes into a range of careers.

The investment, by Research England – part of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) – and the Office for Students (OfS), is well spread geographically, across English higher education providers and their partners. The projects range from targeting recruitment, admissions and transition to increasing the number of Black, Asian and minority ethnic female professors, and generating new admissions practices to creating longitudinal, systemic, and structural change at various English universities.

Panel co-Chairs, Dr Anne-Marie Imafidon MBE and Maisha Islam, said:

Over the course of 2020-21, the longstanding urgency for racial equality was incredibly obvious. We are confident that this competition will be a significant step of tangible action, investment and commitment to support these aims in the context of English Higher Education.

The 13 projects will work collectively to support the entire PGR lifecycle using innovative methods and approaches. This includes reviewing admissions processes to tackling offer rate gaps, and plans to extend routes into doctoral study via professional doctorates and partnering with the NHS. Other projects will focus specifically on intersectional inequalities related to Black female students, and prioritise the mental health of their PGR students of colour.

We have sought to back projects that have demonstrated authentic engagement and partnership work with their students and staff of colour, and a commitment to continue this as part of their own ongoing evaluations.

This is only one of many first steps, as systemic inequalities will not disappear overnight. We are acutely aware of how much further the sector needs to travel to be in a position to allow people of all backgrounds to flourish and establish the most outstanding research and innovation sector with a formidable research culture to match.

Research England’s Director Research, Steven Hill, said:

Persistent inequalities occur throughout higher education for Black, Asian and minority ethnic students.

Some of the inequalities that exist for Black, Asian and minority ethnic undergraduate students – such as the current gap in degree outcomes between white students and Black students of 22.1 percentage points are reflected in the underrepresentation of Black, Asian and minority ethnic students in postgraduate research (PGR) students.

PGR students are also researchers and teachers, and play an important role in supporting the research and academic talent pipeline.

Supporting access and successful participation for Black, Asian and minority ethnic PGR students through these 13 innovate projects is crucial – both to improve opportunities for current generations, and to increase the diversity of talent into academic careers, which has been identified as important to addressing attainment gaps.

Hydrogen and biogas will power whisky and spirit producers across the country following a cash boost of more than £11 million from the UK government, driving forward plans to create low-carbon green distilleries.

The multi-million-pound investment announced today will help distilleries across the UK ditch fossil fuels and develop low carbon heating systems that will make production processes greener and more energy efficient.

Four projects will receive a share of more than £11 million to decarbonise their distilling processes for the UK’s iconic whiskies and spirits.

The distilleries sector has the potential to cut carbon emissions by half a million tonnes every year – equivalent to emissions from powering more than 60,000 homes or taking around 100,000 cars off of the road. Supported through the Net Zero Innovation Portfolio, the winners are being announced today in the wake of the UK hosting the COP26 UN Climate Change summit in Glasgow earlier this month.

Today’s new investment is a demonstration of UK government’s continued commitment to develop new green technologies and innovations, playing a vital role in helping eliminate the UK’s contribution to climate change by 2050.

And with the Scotch whisky industry supporting 40,000 jobs across the UK, including more than 10,000 people directly employed in Scotland, today’s funding will also create more high skilled jobs and provide opportunities for distilleries to develop their fuel transportation and storage technologies.

The announcement also comes in addition to the ambitious green targets announced in the Prime Minister’s Ten Point Plan and the Energy White Paper.

Energy Minister Greg Hands said:

From London to Livingston, the UK is home to some of the world’s best-loved drinks and the Green Distilleries Competition is supporting producers in this iconic industry to go further and faster in cutting carbon emissions as we build back greener.

We have been at the forefront of the push to tackle climate change at the COP26 summit in Glasgow and today’s announcement is a key part of that.

UK industry continues to lead the world in its innovation and commitment to meeting the challenges of tackling climate change head on. That’s certainly something worth raising a toast to.

Scottish Secretary Alister Jack said:

It’s fitting that this announcement comes just before St Andrew’s Day when Scotland’s most famous product will be celebrated around the globe.

Scotland’s whisky industry has a proud heritage and is taking massive steps to embrace innovative technologies that will make production greener and cleaner. UK government investment like this will help secure the future of the sector and the highly-skilled jobs it supports.

Simon Clarke MP, Chief Secretary to the Treasury said:

Thanks to the UK government’s £11 million investment distillers all over Britain are cutting their emissions.

Together with this world class industry we are building a greener future while securing 40,000 high skilled jobs.

Having just hosted COP, our commitment to meeting our net zero has never been so strong and it’s vital we continue to drive momentum.

Scotch Whisky Association Chief Executive Karen Betts said:

This funding is a welcome boost for the industry at a time when Scotch Whisky companies are already working hard to reduce their emissions. As a result, nearly 40% of the industry’s energy is now coming from renewable sources. But we know we need to go further and faster, and that’s where the Green Distilleries Competition is so critical since it supports companies in testing new technologies.

The results of the work undertaken through the competition are then shared across the sector, which helps everyone to map further our path to Net Zero. This is exactly the sort of industry-government partnership that will help us to secure a sustainable future for Scotch Whisky and for the communities across Scotland within which we work.

In the first phase of Green Distilleries Competition funding, 17 projects across the UK received up to £75,000 each to help boost research and development for decarbonisation projects. Phase 2 will enable four of those original 17 to progress schemes that include the use of low-carbon hydrogen and biogas instead of fossil fuels in their production processes.

Projects that have received phase 2 funding include:

• Protium Green Solutions, who are developing a system that uses hydrogen as a fuel source rather than oil in whisky production at the Bruichladdich Distillery on the Isle of Islay
• Locogen Ltd, whose project will be based at the Arbikie Highland Estate Distillery in Inverkeilor near Arbroath are developing and installing a green hydrogen energy system at the distillery, comprising a wind turbine, electrolyser, hydrogen storage and hydrogen boiler system
• Colorado Construction and Engineering, which is based in Livingston near Edinburgh, are developing a novel biofuel batch-gasification system
• Supercritical Solutions, a clean-tech start-up business who are developing the world’s first high-pressure ultra-efficient electrolyser to generate green hydrogen as a feedstock for the distilling process working with Beam Suntory at their Glen Garioch distillery in Oldmeldrum, Aberdeenshire

Matt Bird, CEO at Supercritical said:

Our collaboration with Beam Suntory and the Manufacturing Technology Centre will help advance the world’s first high-pressure, ultra-efficient electrolyser technology for the production of zero emission hydrogen, helping to decarbonise the whisky industry whilst setting an example for other hard-to-decarbonise sectors.

Funding for the Green Distilleries Competition is part of the £1 billion Net Zero Innovation Portfolio which aims to accelerate the commercialisation of innovative low-carbon technologies, systems and processes in the power, buildings and industrial sectors.

Successful phase 2 distilleries

1. Protium Green Solutions Limited

Protium Green Solutions Limited, in partnership with Energised Environments Limited, Bruichladdich Distillery Company Limited and Deuterium Heating Limited (£2,650,041.64) based in London, England.

Protium Green Solutions works with Bruichladdich distillery with the aim to create a novel onsite fuel switching process that will replace a medium fuel oil boiler with a first of a kind hydrogen boiler.

2. Locogen Ltd

Locogen Ltd, in partnership with Logan Energy Limited and Arbikie Distilling Ltd (£3,000,000), based in Edinburgh, Scotland.

Locogen plan to develop green hydrogen through creating infrastructure to provide Arbikie Highland Estate distillery with hydrogen fuel for raising steam in the distillation process. This will replace the usual method of burning oil for distillation.

3. Supercritical Solutions Ltd

Supercritical Solutions Ltd, in partnership with Beam Suntory UK Ltd and Manufacturing Technology Centre (MTC) (£2,944,778.29), lead based in Maidenhead, England.

Supercritical will advance its novel high pressure ultraefficient electrolysis technology and build the world’s first demonstrator, all whilst delivering the world’s first hydrogen direct-fired whisky with Beam Suntory.

4. Colorado Construction and Engineering Ltd

Colorado Construction and Engineering Ltd (£2,723,303.52), based in Livingston, Scotland.

Colorado will design, implement and rollout a batch gasification proposal, using a biofuel gasifier and associated reactive fuel burner, where this technology could enable distilleries to retrofit existing boilers with the means to gasify biofuels.

Named after PC Andrew Harper, who was killed in the line of duty in 2019, the law will introduce mandatory life sentences for anyone convicted of killing an emergency worker whilst committing a crime.

Today’s move follows an unwavering campaign by Andrew’s family, including his widow Lissie, and the Police Federation, and comes after a number of meetings with the Justice Secretary and Home Secretary.

Henry Long, Jessie Cole and Albert Bowers each received custodial sentences of between 13 and 19 years in prison for PC Harper’s manslaughter. An appeal by the Attorney General to increase their time behind bars was rejected.

Ministers are determined to make sure that punishments fit the severity of the crime and are determined to introduce the law as soon as possible.

The move extends mandatory life sentences to anyone who commits the manslaughter of an emergency worker on duty – including police, prison officers, firefighters and paramedics – while carrying out another crime unless there are truly exceptional circumstances. Courts must already impose life sentences for murder, with a whole-life order being the starting point if the victim is a police officer.

Deputy Prime Minister, Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice, Dominic Raab said:

We are going to pass into law mandatory life sentences for those who unlawfully kill an emergency worker in the course of their duty. I pay tribute to Lissie Harper’s remarkable campaign.

This government is on the side of victims and their families and we want our emergency services to know that we’ll always have their back.

Home Secretary, Priti Patel, said:

PC Andrew Harper’s killing was shocking. As well as a committed police officer, he was a husband and a son. It is with thanks to the dedication of Lissie and his family that I am proud to be able to honour Andrew’s life by introducing Harper’s Law.

Those who seek to harm our emergency service workers represent the very worst of humanity and it is right that future killers be stripped of the freedom to walk our streets with a life sentence.

Lissie Harper said:

Emergency services workers require extra protection. I know all too well how they are put at risk and into the depths of danger on a regular basis on behalf of society. That protection is what Harper’s Law will provide and I am delighted that it will soon become a reality. 

It’s been a long journey and a lot of hard work. I know Andrew would be proud to see Harper’s Law reach this important milestone. 

I’d like to thank the teams at the Ministry of Justice and the Home Office and Dominic Raab, Priti Patel and Robert Buckland for working with me to achieve this.

I would also like to thank my incredible Harper’s Law team as well as the public for their unstinting support for such an important campaign. Those who believed that the right thing is worth doing despite the hurdles and challenges that we needed to be overcome. 

And for the families of those that this Law will provide justice for, we’re almost there. Your continued support has kept me pushing forward.

The move follows recent government action to protect police, prison officers, firefighters and paramedics and ensure those who seek to harm them feel the full force of the law. This includes plans to double the maximum penalty for assaulting them to two years’ imprisonment.

Notes to editors

• Henry Long was given a 19-year extended determinate sentence (EDS). This is composed of 16 years in custody (unless his release on licence is ordered by the Parole Board at the two thirds point) and an additional three years on extended licence to bring it to a total of 19 years. Long would be liable to be recalled to custody at any point when he is on probation if he were to reoffend, or breach his licence conditions.

• The changes will mean that those who kill an emergency worker while committing an offence will face a mandatory life sentence. The emergency worker does not need to be aware that that offence had taken place or be responding directly to it. Judges will have the option to impose a different sentence in exceptional circumstances if there are exceptional circumstances which relate to the offender or the offence which would make it unjust to apply the minimum sentence.

• It will cover those emergency workers as defined in the same way by in the Emergency Workers (Offences) Act 2018 and in section 68 of the Sentencing Code who were acting in the exercise of their functions. This includes police officers, National Crime Agency officers, prison officers, custody officers, firefighters and paramedics.
• The courts must already impose life sentences for murder and the starting point for the murder of a police officer or prison office acting in the course of their duties for offences on or after 13 April 2015 is a whole life order. The courts can also impose a life sentence for manslaughter.
• The Assaults on Emergency Workers (Offences) Act 2018 introduced a statutory aggravating factor which means judges must also consider tougher sentences for offences such as manslaughter, GBH or sexual assault – if the victim was an emergency worker (this has since been consolidated into the Sentencing Code and can be found in s67 of the Sentencing Act 2020).

Sir Peter Bazalgette has been appointed as the industry co-Chair of the Creative Industries Council, the joint forum between industry and government which helps our world-leading creative industries continue to flourish.

The Council is co-Chaired by Nadine Dorries, Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport and Kwasi Kwartang, Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy.

Sir Peter will succeed Tim Davie CBE, Director General of the BBC, from Wednesday 1st December.

Sir Peter has led an extensive career in the creative industries, first as an independent television producer and inventor of internationally successful television formats. He served as President of the Royal Television Society and Deputy Chair of the National Film & TV School. He is also very experienced in leadership roles, working together with government and industry, having co-founded the Creative Industries Federation. He is currently the Chair of ITV, was Chair of the Arts Council England and until recently was a Board member of UKRI.

Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries said:

I would like to pay tribute to Tim for his brilliant work as co-chair of the Creative Industries Council and offer a warm welcome to Sir Peter. I know Sir Peter will make an outstanding contribution to our vital work making sure everyone has access to our world-leading Creative Industries. I look forward to working alongside him.

As a leader in the creative industries, Sir Peter led the Independent Review of the Creative Industries commissioned by the government. This landmark review has shaped the creative industries policy landscape over the past few years, with recommendations being taken forward in the 2018 Sector Deal.

First meeting in 2011, the Creative Industries Council has helped to give a united voice across the range of creative sectors which has enabled the government and industry to jointly tackle barriers to growth facing the sector, such as access to finance, skills, export markets, regulation, intellectual property (IP) and infrastructure.

Under Tim Davie’s tenure, the CIC has overseen implementation of the 2018 Sector Deal, which included the successful delivery of the Creative Scale-Up pilot programme, the Audience of the Future programme and the Creative Careers programme. Looking forward, the CIC will continue to play a critical role in bringing together industry and government perspectives to ensure the Creative Industries continue to drive the UK’s economic growth and global appeal.

Tim Davie, co-chair of the Creative Industries Council, said:

It has been a real honour to serve as co-Chair of the Creative Industries Council over the last three years. This country’s creative industries remain a massive global success story and, despite the immense challenges of Covid, are in a strong position to fuel the UK’s future economic growth – through exports and by enriching lives in towns and cities across our nations and regions. I’d like to congratulate Sir Peter Bazalgette on his appointment as co-Chair and wish him every success in the future. I look forward to seeing the Council go from strength-to-strength as it supports the continued growth of our world-beating creative industries.

Sir Peter Bazalgette, Co-Chair Designate of the Creative Industries said:

The Creative Industries are rightly cited in the government’s Build Back Better – Plan for Growth. So this is a pivotal time. And the Creative Industries Council convenes sector leaders to help drive these growth policies.

I’m honoured to succeed Tim Davie as Co-Chair. The software, the screen entertainment, the music, the fashion, the video games and the ‘createch’ of the next ten years can deliver on innovation, wealth creation and cultural value for the whole of the UK.