Following the Prime Minister’s recent cabinet re-shuffle, Dids Macdonald, CEO of ACID said, “We have always had an excellent relationship with the Department of Culture, Media and Sport and the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy and I will be writing to each new Minister to ensure that the issues facing designers on intellectual property are high on their radar.

It is extremely important that the nuances of a very complex set of design laws here in the UK are understood by those who are negotiating on our behalf in future Free Trade Agreements. Not least because in design law globally there is little harmonisation or consistency with our own. I will also be writing to the Chancellor to ensure that the Creative Industries’ significant input to the UK’s GDP is acknowledged. So often, Tech, Finance, Pharma and Automotive grab the headlines when the Creative Industries bring so much to the table. Design, especially, is a strong and powerful international calling card. Why? Because UK design and manufacturing is the best of the best!

Other IP concerns will be articulated including ensuring they are aware of the potential calamity to UK designers when they lose EU27 Unregistered Design Right protection. Clarity from Government on urgent talks to secure a reciprocal agreement are essential as the clock ticks!”   

Rt Hon Rishi Sunak, Chancellor of the Exchequer

Rishi Sunak, MP went to school at Winchester (head boy) before reading PPE at Oxford.  He then studied for an MBA at Stamford as a Fulbright Scholar before working for Goldman Sachs and then Chris Hohn’s hedge fund.  He won Richmond in the 2015 General Election; the seat vacated by William Hague.  He supported leaving the EU and was given his first Ministerial job as Parliamentary Under-Secretary for local Government.  Following Boris Johnson’s victory in the 2019 General Election, he was appointed Chief Secretary to the Treasury before his sudden elevation with Javid’s resignation.  Clearly, he faces a major challenge now in being seen to be his own person.

Rt Hon Alok Sharma MP, Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy

Compared to Sunak and Dowden, Alok Sharma, MP is a political old hand, having been the MP for Reading West since 2010, the town he grew up in.  Sharma studied Applied Physics and Electronics at Salford University before working in finance for Deloitte and then Nikko Securities.  He then worked for a Swedish firm in Stockholm and Frankfurt.  Sharma gained his first Ministerial role in 2016 at the Foreign Office before being made Housing Minister in 2017 – he was housing minister during the Grenfell Tower tragedy.  Sharma was then appointed Secretary of State for International Development in July 2019 before being appointed Business Secretary yesterday.  Sharma has strong ties with India and was once an infrastructure envoy to India under David Cameron.  He is one of the few ‘remainers’ around the Cabinet table.

Rt Hon Oliver Dowden CBE MP, Secretary of State, Department of Culture, Media and Sport

Oliver Dowden, MP, is the new Secretary of State at DCMS and the MP for Hertsmere (he beat Rishi Sunak, the new Chancellor in the selection for the seat in 2015).  He earned his spurs in the Conservative Research Department before spending a short time in political consultancy before coming back into politics to work for Andy Coulson in the communications operation at Number 10 before becoming Deputy Chief of Staff to David Cameron.  Only a year after being elected he was appointed as a Minister in the Cabinet Office and then subsequently promoted within the Cabinet Office.  Within 5 years he has gone from backbencher to Cabinet Minister, underlining his intellect and future potential.  He has done a lot of work in Government around the third sector and volunteering/youth agenda and was a driving force behind the National Citizenship Service.  It’s easy to forget that DCMS has responsibility for out of school youth policy and the Third Sector and with the whole levelling up agenda, Number 10 is keen to use DCMS to demonstrate to young people what the Government does to support them (young people are a big vote issue for the Conservatives).

Caroline Dinenage MP

Caroline Dinenage MP has replaced Nigel Adams in the Minister of State role.  She is the MP for Gosport and was formerly Minister of State at the Department of Health.  Caroline doesn’t have a track record in the creative industries but grew up in a TV family, with her father having presented local news and other magazine programmes.  She has taken a keen interest in equality issues and with her seat being at the heart of the UK naval sector, has spoken widely about defence.  Caroline is married to Mark Lancaster, the former MP for Milton Keynes North who stood down at the last General Election citing the abuse and threats to his life he had received as an MP (note DCMS oversees online harms).