Meeting our members in York and Edinburgh

The receptions gave local members an opportunity to find out more about the work that we do, network with fellow writers and hear how we are championing authors’ rights through our advocacy work.

CEO Barbara Hayes addressed members, speaking about the immense cultural and economic value that writers provide, the origins of ALCS as the Writers Action Group, and the work we are doing to ensure the founding principle of “no use without payment” continues to be upheld in the age of AI.

She said: “And of course, AI remains a central focus of our campaign work. We’re urging the Government to support a fair and dynamic licensing market based on transparency, where creators have a choice over the licensing of their works and where they can be fairly compensated. We made the case for this in our submission to the Government’s consultation on AI and copyright, and urged members to do the same, which I’m sure a number of you in this room did.

We’re also working with our partners at the Copyright Licensing Agency (CLA) and the Publishers’ Licensing Service on the development of a pilot AI training licence. We want to demonstrate that a licensing option can work for all and ensure creators are fairly remunerated.”

The Edinburgh reception was also attended by the MP for Perth and Kinross-shire, Pete Wishart, a long-standing advocate for the rights of creators and Vice Chair of the All Party Writers Group (APWG). He discussed the work of the APWG and its focus over the past year.

He said: “Our biggest focus this year has been Generative AI and the concerns and difficulties around that. There’s one really good thing that has come out of this: the public now understand what intellectual property is all about. They know that this is what underpins our success, and it is what allows creators to be able to earn a living from the wonderful works that they produce.

Copyright is critical to the success of all of the creative sectors in the UK. We are in the top three countries for creative content, the UK is just good at this. There is something wonderful about having economic growth built upon the imagination of the people who live and work in this sector. So for us as Parliamentarians, we are determined to hold onto this and do everything possible to ensure that we remain at the top of the table.”

You can learn more about our campaigning work here.