Gerry Sutcliffe: It is a great pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Turner. I am grateful to my hon. Friend the Member for Hartlepool for mentioning the work of the Select Committee. It is, of course, made up of Members from both sides of the House. My hon. Friend was quite right to say that ours was a strong report on the impact that the creative industries have on our economy. I think I mentioned...
Gerry Sutcliffe: I do not want to get into the details, but I read the other day that the new Doctor Who has got a new persona—I think he is the 12th Doctor in the series—in the sense of the outfits and the clothes that he wears. Does my hon. Friend think that the artistic design of the costume can be described as copyright? I assume there will be a new Doctor Who doll that everyone will want by...
Gerry Sutcliffe: He might be the 13th.
Gerry Sutcliffe: On the general point about protection for designers, I have been contacted by furniture designers who say that there are still outstanding issues with the Enterprise and Regulation Reform Act 2013. At the time, the Government promised to introduce some secondary legislation. Will the Minister update us—either today or during the course of our proceedings—on what is likely to happen with...
Gerry Sutcliffe: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what discussions (a) he and (b) his officials have had with counterparts at the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills on any requirement to compensate tobacco companies for deprivation of their intellectual property.
Gerry Sutcliffe: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what steps he has taken to explore the potential for safeguarding care home residents through the installation of covert CCTV.
Gerry Sutcliffe: The Home Secretary could not even tell us whether the Government were going to take the passports off those individuals and whether they would be free to roam around.
Gerry Sutcliffe: It was a pleasure to be on the Bill Committee with the hon. Member for Cambridge (Dr Huppert). He has been consistent in his arguments about the threat to individual and civil rights, and I understand his point. As the former Home Secretary, my right hon. Friend the Member for Kingston upon Hull West and Hessle (Alan Johnson), has said, none of us wants to be in this position. We all want...
Gerry Sutcliffe: What does the hon. Gentleman see as the role of the Intelligence and Security Committee? It looks at lots of issues that are reported to it about the threats the country faces, which ordinary Members of Parliament cannot see.
Gerry Sutcliffe: My right hon. Friend is talking about the answers we need. Promises were made to the Bill Committee—I was on it—and Parliament about the cost of TPIMs, but we have never got to the bottom of how much those costs have increased by. Would she like to comment on that?
Gerry Sutcliffe: It is a great pleasure to be involved in this debate and to follow the hon. Member for Hove (Mike Weatherley), who has shown why he should be the IP tsar. I know that he is the IP adviser to the Prime Minister, but in his contribution he has shown an understanding of the issues that we face. I first became involved in intellectual property rights as the Minister responsible for consumer...
Gerry Sutcliffe: How soon I forget. My hon. Friend is right: Viscount Younger did come before the Select Committee, but the hon. Member for Wantage, who is also a Minister from the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, also gave evidence to the Committee on IP rights. The Committee’s report is worthy of being read by hon. Members who have not yet done so, given the impact that creativity can have on...
Gerry Sutcliffe: I do. I know it is difficult when, in austere times, we are asking the Treasury to give more tax breaks, but I think it is a case of invest to save: if we do that for the music industry, we will get more back in the fruition and growth of that sector. I support what the hon. Gentleman proposes. I think that Google has responsibilities and needs to consider the issue raised by BPI—I had...
Gerry Sutcliffe: I would be interested to see how the Minister responds to those issues because it is difficult to get to the definition of what is and is not a criminal offence. I understand the arguments on both sides, but having received representations from designers in the furniture manufacturing industry, I feel that we have to do something; we cannot continue without there being recourse to some...
Gerry Sutcliffe: The hon. Gentleman makes an important point about the importance of IP rights. Does he agree that there is a need to educate most of the country, including young people, about the value and importance of IP rights?
Gerry Sutcliffe: I hope that we can say more later about the role of Google and the way in which it investigates, or rather does not investigate, the complaints that are made to it. I believe that millions of complaints have not been dealt with.
Gerry Sutcliffe: My hon. Friend will be aware of the report by the Culture, Media and Sport Committee on creativity and innovation, which highlights the importance of the book industry. Will he speak about the concerns of the book industry about the role of Google, whose representatives have visited the Prime Minister’s office 17 times in the past two years?
Gerry Sutcliffe: Will the report that the IPO will provide to Parliament each year include sections to do with the problems that companies and individuals face with intellectual property rights? I recognise the point about showing how the system is working and impacting on growing the economy, but will areas of dispute or problem areas be covered as well?
Gerry Sutcliffe: What assessment he has made of the incidence of damp in social housing.