Music: Copyright

Department for Education written question – answered at on 10 February 2026.

Alert me about debates like this

Photo of Lord Black of Brentwood Lord Black of Brentwood Conservative

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the importance of educational licensing agreements to the financial sustainability of the UK music publishing sector; and what steps they are taking to ensure that the use of copyright material in education continues to provide fair remuneration to rights holders.

Photo of Lord Black of Brentwood Lord Black of Brentwood Conservative

To ask His Majesty's Government what financial support they provide to state-funded schools to assist with copyright licensing costs and to ensure compliance with intellectual property regulations regarding printed music teaching materials.

Photo of Lord Black of Brentwood Lord Black of Brentwood Conservative

To ask His Majesty's Government what mechanisms they have in place to ensure that all state-funded schools have universal access to the musical scores and texts required to support the delivery of the national curriculum for music.

Photo of Baroness Smith of Malvern Baroness Smith of Malvern Minister of State (Education), Minister of State (Minister for Women and Equalities) , The Minister of State, Department for Work and Pensions

High-quality music education must not be for the privileged few but an entitlement for all. It is an essential part of the broad and rich education every child deserves. It is a decision for schools which resources they want to purchase and use to support them to teach the national and wider school curriculum, including musical scores and texts.

The department buys copyright licences for all state-funded schools in England covering almost all their copyright requirements. Funding for this comes from the Core Schools Budget.

Purchasing these licences directly saves schools money and administrative time, while ensuring that intellectual property rights are respected.

The department appreciates the importance of educational licences to the music publishing sector and negotiate with Copyright Management Organisations to obtain licences for an appropriate range of content and usage at a fair and transparent cost.

Guidance and advice for state schools in England on copyright licences is available here: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/copyright-licences-information-for-schools.

Does this answer the above question?

Yes2 people think so

No0 people think not

Would you like to ask a question like this yourself? Use our Freedom of Information site.

intellectual property

patents (for inventions), trade marks, protected designs, and copyrights; see http://www.patent.gov.uk