All-Party Parliamentary Group for Writers – 2024 Inaugural General Meeting Minutes

Inaugural General Meeting Minutes

Tuesday 15 October 2024

From 14.30

Room C, 1 Parliament St, Houses of Parliament, London

Quorum: Five APPG members (from either House). Eight for AGM.

Electoral procedure:

• Voting will be by a show of hands.
• The group will allow a prospective officer to be elected in absentia.

Notetaker: Jonathan England (c/o Authors’ Licensing and Collecting Society)

Attendees: Chris Evans MP (Lab), Sir John Whittingdale MP (Con), Baroness Winterton (Lab), Alison Hume MP (Lab), Lord Dubs (Lab), Lord Aberdare (X), Pete Wishart MP* (SNP), Caroline Dinenage MP* (Con), Mary Glindon MP *(Lab). Lewis Atkinson MP*(Lab).

*Arrived during or late for the AGM but attended meeting.

1. Welcome from the Chair of the APPG for Writers, Chris Evans MP.

Chris Evans MP brought the meeting to order at 14:30. Commenting first on our world leading writers’, the environment for writers is harder than ever with falling earnings and the advent of AI. He recognised the important work of the group throughout the last Parliament with particular thanks to the former Chair, Giles Watling MP. The group agreed to send a letter of thanks and recognition to Giles.

2. Election of APPG Officers and Members (in accordance with new APPG rules)
   1. Election of Chair.

Chris Evans MP was proposed and seconded as the new Chair, and was voted through unanimously by show of hands by those members present (eight).

1. Election of co/Vice Chair

Sir John Whittingdale MP was proposed and seconded as Vice Chair and was voted through unanimously by show of hands by those members present (eight).

1. Election of other Officers (up to four)

Pete Wishart MP and The Earl of Clancarty (in absentia) were proposed as final two Vice Chairs. Whilst Pete Wishart MP was seconded, the final officer was objected to by members present as no female representative was proposed alongside the other officers. Alison Hume MP was proposed and seconded instead, both Wishart and Hume were voted through unanimously by show of hands by those members present (eight).

1. Final Results:

3. Approval of the Purpose Statement and Annual Report of the APPG for Writers (2023-24) – PAPER B

Chris Evans MP, invited Jonathan England to share the review of the year which featured the launch of the Freelancer Commissioner campaign as well as the ongoing work of the APWG for a Smart fund and roundup of the campaign meetings and receptions hosted in association with the group. Comments or feedback were requested for following the meeting.

Priorities of the group for the next year:

Chair, Chris Evans MP, invited Jonathan England to share the priorities of the group for next year before opening the conversation to the group and inviting questions on the report or previous financial statements.

We anticipate the focus of the APWG in the coming year will be on:

• Campaigning for writers to be central to the ongoing policy debates within DCMS and DSIT on the regulation of AI, particularly in the context of recognising and enforcing intellectual property rights.
• Working to ensure that the rights of freelance journalists are recognised, protected and valued as part of an overall drive towards sustainable journalism in the online environment
• Continuing to campaign for greater creator engagement with government through a dedicated freelancer commissioner.
• Ensuring authors are fairly compensated for the use of their work in the platform economy.
• Continuing to monitor frontier technologies, such as AI, and their impact on authors, campaigning for protection of their interests and for licensing solutions to secure fair renumeration where their works are used.

In addition to these areas of focus, ongoing policy concerns for writers will include:

• The creation of a ‘Smart Fund’ to pay authors and other creators for uses of their work and also deliver targeted support to creative communities across the country with funds raised from sales of technical devices to compensate creators for the copying of their works such devices enable.
• Protect and promote the UK’s effective copyright system, as the IPO has not made a final decision on the status of the UK’s copyright exhaustion regime
• Remove VAT on audiobooks to resolve an ongoing unfairness, where other formats of books are VAT free.
• Campaign for an increase in the Public Lending Right pot for authors to better remunerate them for the contribution they make to libraries, the Public Lending Right fund has not been increased in over ten years

Statement from the Chair, Chris Evans MP:

“Government is expected to consult shortly on AI and IP regulations, and writers, given their fundamental role in providing much of the resources and works needed to train AI foundation models, should be listened to and their concerns reflected in any legislation or regulation. To inform and support this work, we look forward to seeing the results of the extensive survey carried out by ALCS, gathering authors’ views on AI and its impact on their existing and future work.  

Writers are vital to our world beating creative industries and beyond, and this group will provide a voice within Parliament for those authors, journalists, poets, academics and screenwriters.”

 For more details on the below, please visit www.alcs.co.uk/campaining and All Party Writers Group

• A Manifesto for Writers
• AI Principles Paper
• Freelancer Commissioner
• The Smart Fund

The CREATe research into Freelance Journalism can be found at www.alcs.co.uk/research

*please note the APWG website will be updated to include these papers