At yesterday’s Culture, Media and Sport Questions I asked the Secretary of State, Maria Miller, about the importance of the creative industries to the economy and the enforcement of copyright law.

Mr Ben Bradshaw (Exeter) (Lab): What assessment she has made of the contribution of the arts and creative industries to the economy.

The Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport (Maria Miller): The Centre for Economics and Business Research estimates that arts and culture had a turnover of £12.4 billion and a gross value added of £5.9 billion in 2011. The creative industries contribute £36.3 billion in gross value added, accounting for almost 3% of gross value added in the UK in 2009.

Mr Bradshaw: Copyright theft costs our writers, artists and musicians billions of pounds a year. Three years ago, this House legislated on action to tackle that. When is the Secretary of State going to show that she is not in the pocket of Google and the other internet service providers by doing something to enforce the will of the House and enforce the law?

Maria Miller: The right hon. Gentleman will know, given that he had my job in the previous Government, that the detail of that legislation requires a great deal of working through. That is a huge priority for this Government and I can assure him that we are working closely to ensure that copyright support is put in place as soon as possible.