We welcome Labour’s commitment to bring forward appropriate regulation on the developers of AI models. While this reflects efforts led by Lord Holmes on AI regulation in some regards, the Labour manifesto does not acknowledge the significant potential for AI development to harm writers’ interests or the need to protect their intellectual property. We hope with time and the opportunity to give more detail on these proposals, the Labour Party will show further support for UK writers on this issue.  

It’s positive that the Labour manifesto addresses the role of culture in education, and opportunities in the creative industry for young people across the UK, but more can be done to support writers whose work is the lifeblood of said industry.  

We welcome their pledge to act on late payments to ensure the self-employed are paid on time, but this is just one of many challenges self-employed writers face. We have been vocal about the need to have a focused effort to address the range of issues faced by freelance workforce – our call to introduce a Freelancer Commissioner will help shape policy for the self-employed within the creative sector, acting as an avenue for dialogue and learning within Government. 

We’re glad to see a commitment from Labour to continued commissioning of British content. We know that investment in UK productions builds on our existing creative ecology and we hope this leads to a sustainable future for UK-produced content. In our Manifesto for Writers and Creators we set out the importance of commissioning terms, tax reliefs and a sustainable future for children’s TV. We would like to see more detail to make it clear that any changes will boost the creativity of UK writers. 

With 2,681 journalism jobs lost in 2023, up 48% from 2022, it is crucial that the next Parliament addresses the significant transfer of value away from publishers and journalists to platforms and other technology companies, as a result of news scraping and AI training. 

ALCS will call on the next Parliament to support collaboration between tech companies, news publishers and journalists to help develop collective agreements to reset this imbalance and establish a fair share of revenues for freelance journalists. The Government is already establishing a Digital Markets Unit with powers to intervene in this area, so we would welcome any succeeding Government to continue this approach and boost its capabilities even further to protect creatives. 

The upcoming election will be a crucial moment for the future of our sector, as struggling creatives everywhere call for the next Government to back fair remuneration, strong copyright and licensing, and liveable wages. 

ALCS Deputy Chief Executive Richard Combes says “We are glad to see that attention is being paid to culture and support for the self-employed, but authors need commitments to ensure the next Parliament will look out for them. With the rising prominence of AI, our next Government must support the work needed to ensure authors receive fair remuneration however their work is used.” 

Read our manifesto to learn more about our campaign work.

Visit The Write Share to learn about the remuneration solutions a new Government should support.

Read the full Culture, Media and Sport report supporting our calls for a Freelancer Commissioner and Smart Fund here.