Speeches by Smith.

“Can we talk about listed building consent briefly? We have heard from a number of people about the delays and inconsistency in the process. Is the Cabinet Office doing anything to accelerate listed building consent for public estate re-use?”

“Anything from DCMS on that particular topic?”

“Generally, in terms of improving the process.”

“Are you making those happen?”

“We also heard about what has been described as a postcode lottery, both in terms of the interpretation of what is needed to go through the processes and the capacity to deliver these things. What actions can we take nationally to end the postcode lottery and improve the capacity, expertise, and the consistency of the p…”

“Is it mainly about investment rather than streamlining processes?”

“Have you tried and they have not wanted to?”

“How much cost does it add on to a tour? I suppose it is different for an orchestra and for a band, but at what point does it become unviable just because of cabotage?”

“Presumably, Naomi, you deal with the European equivalent to the Musicians’ Union; can you get it to come to the table and talk about the mutual benefits of sorting this problem out?”

“I was just going to come on to cabotage. I do not know if there is anything more you want to say about the problems it causes; you have already touched on that, but you talked about temporary solutions. Are there workarounds that can be put in place to make that happen?”

“Are you confident the Government are engaging properly on this and trying to make the changes that you are proposing?”

“Naomi, you said earlier that the issue of carnets could be resolved by the Government without a whole new negotiation. Why have we not done that? Why are we not doing that?”

“That plays into the idea that some artists are now just not touring the EU because of these problems.”

“Kate, you mentioned that you now source merchandise in Europe for your tours, is that right? Is that something that a lot of musicians are doing? We just want to get an indication of the problems that the merch rules cause for musicians.”

“How often do those delays and issues happen?”

“Kate and Naomi, you both mentioned the issue of border checks and delays. Could you give us an indication of how big that problem is?”

“In terms of the scheduling, some big orchestras have their own trucks to carry their musicians’ equipment. How does that work? Is there a lengthy process for inspecting those trucks that you then have to build into the schedule?”

“I have some questions I want to move on to, but that is really interesting. You mentioned Live Nation and Spotify, which are very different parts of the industry. Who could co-ordinate that? Could you get the three big record companies to try to pull everybody together to give advice and support to artists?”

“I was actually going to ask about the dreaded carnets, which is my topic. I will start with you, Hanna, because you talked about how carnets and CITES are maybe the biggest problems for orchestras. We are just trying to get a picture of how these problems affect tour budgets and scheduling. How does it work for a big o…”

“Naomi, you said earlier that the issue of carnets could be resolved by the Government without a whole new negotiation. Why have we not done that? Why are we not doing that?”