General Election 2024 Manifestos Roundup
What do parties have to say on Copyright, IP, Artificial Intelligence and Freelance Working?
Ahead of the General Election, each party has laid out their plans for the Creative Industries, including policies on Freelancing, Copyright, IP and Artificial Intelligence. DACS' Communications and Engagement Lead, Alistair Small, rounds up the 7 largest parties' manifesto pledges in these key areas.
This week, DACS set out 3 critical policy asks for the next UK Government, including the Smart Fund, a Freelancer Commissioner, and AI regulation that protects the rights of visual artists and creators.
So, what do the UK’s largest parties have to say about these issues?
Freelancing and the future of work
One-third of the cultural sector workforce are freelance workers, rising to 70% of the workforce in the visual arts, vastly exceeding the national average of 16%. Almost all artists are self-employed, or will have multiple sources of income including that from self-employed work as an artist.
Many freelancers have mixed roles, such as artists and curators who are teachers, lecturers and freelance writers, or who have contracted part-time employment either in or outside of the visual arts sector.
Therefore, it is vital that a future government recognises the critical importance of freelance workers to the sector and to the economy as a whole.
What do political parties say about Freelance and Self-Employed work?
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The Conservative Party pledge to:
- Abolish the 9% National Insurance main rate for the self-employed
- Promote digital invoicing
- Improve enforcement of the Prompt Payment Code
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The Green Party pledge to:
- Bring the Prompt Payment Code into law
- Bar late payers from public-procurement contracts
- Mandate the Small Business Commissioner to investigate potential instances of poor payment proactively, instead of only when a complaint has been made
- Establish equal employment rights for all workers from their first day of employment, including those in the ‘gig economy’ and on zero-hours contracts.
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The Labour Party pledge to:
- Take action on late payments to ensure small businesses and the self-employed are paid on time
- Implement ‘Labour’s Plan to Make Work Pay: Delivering a New Deal for Working People’ in full – introducing legislation within 100 days banning zero hours contracts; ending fire and rehire; and introducing basic rights from day one to parental leave, sick pay, and protection from unfair dismissal. They would consult with businesses, workers, and civil society on how to put these plans into practice before legislation is passed.
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The Liberal Democrats pledge to:
- Establish a new ‘dependent contractor’ employment status in between employment and self-employment, with entitlements to basic rights such as minimum earnings levels, sick pay and holiday entitlement
- Review IR35 reforms to ensure self-employed people are treated fairly
- Review pension rules to protect portability between roles and address gig economy
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Plaid Cymru pledge to:
- Instigate a Welsh Freelancers Fund to support the creative sector
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Reform UK pledge to:
- Abolish IR35 rules
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The Scottish National Party pledge to:
- Ban zero-hours contracts
- Ban fire and rehire practices
Copyright, IP and Artificial Intelligence
DACS calls on the next UK Government to create new collective licensing revenue for artists, writers, performers and directors when their copyright protected works are copied and downloaded on digital devices. The Smart Fund could raise up to £300 million a year for creators, and is endorsed by the Culture, Media and Sport Committee’s Creator Remuneration Report. Many artists rely on royalties to sustain their practices, and it is vital that the UK’s copyright framework continues to support visual artists and wider rightsholders.
DACS also calls on the next UK Government to include visual artists in the regulation of AI, that complies with copyright law and incentivises human creativity. Artists must be able to give consent, have control and be compensated for the use of their works in machine learning and AI training.
What do political parties say about Copyright, IP and Artificial Intelligence?
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The Conservative Party pledge to:
- Ensure creators are properly protected and remunerated for their work, whilst also making the most of the opportunities of AI and its applications for creativity in the future.
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The Green Party pledge to:
- Introduce a Digital Bill of Rights to give the public greater control over their data, ensuring UK data protection is as strong as any other regulatory regime.
- Take a precautionary regulatory approach to the harms and risk of AI.
- Insist on the protection of the Intellectual Property of artists, writers and musicians and other creators. We would ensure that AI does not erode the value of human creativity and that workers’ rights and interests are respected when AI leads to significant changes in working conditions.
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The Labour Party pledge to:
- Ensure industrial strategy supports the development of the Artificial Intelligence (AI) sector, removes planning barriers to new datacentres. Create a National Data Library to bring together existing research programmes and help deliver data-driven public services, whilst maintaining strong safeguards and ensuring all of the public benefit.
- Create a new Regulatory Innovation Office, bringing together existing functions across government. This office will help regulators update regulation, speed up approval timelines, and co-ordinate issues that span existing boundaries. Labour will ensure the safe development and use of AI models by introducing binding regulation on the handful of companies developing the most powerful AI models and by banning the creation of sexually explicit deepfakes.
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The Liberal Democrats pledge to:
- Create a clear, workable and well-resourced cross-sectoral regulatory framework for artificial intelligence that: promotes innovation while creating certainty for AI users, developers and investors, establishes transparency and accountability for AI systems in the public sector, and ensures the use of personal data and AI is unbiased, transparent and accurate, and respects the privacy of innocent people.
- Negotiate the UK’s participation in the Trade and Technology Council with the US and the EU, so we can play a leading role in global AI regulation, and work with international partners in agreeing common standards for AI risk and impact assessment, testing, monitoring and audit.
- Promote creative skills, address the barriers to finance faced by small businesses, and support modern and flexible patent, copyright and licensing rules.
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Plaid Cymru does not mention copyright, IP or Artificial Intelligence in their manifesto.
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Reform UK does not mention copyright, IP or Artificial Intelligence in their manifesto.
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The Scottish National Party does not mention copyright and IP in their manifesto. On Artificial Intelligence they pledge to:
Prioritise research and investment in Artificial Intelligence to capitalise on the technological revolution and ensure its full potential is maximised in supporting public services in a way that is open, ethical and transparent.
