Creative Industries

Lord Wigley Excerpts

Monday 8th February 2016 Lords Chamber

[The Earl of Courtown]

I hope my noble friend finds something to do on Sunday afternoons. Apart from that, I agree with him entirely.

[Lord Wigley (PC)]

My Lords, does the noble Earl accept that the creative industries make a massive economic contribution to these islands? The cuts that may be affecting them may emanate from local government, but the benefit of the economic input does not come to local government. Can central government find some way of ensuring that we do not lose out on the creative arts and the economic benefit that they bring to these islands?

[The Earl of Courtown]

My Lords, I do not agree with the noble Lord that we are losing out on creative arts, but I can tell him about examples of our funding, such as creative content tax relief. The noble Lord is no doubt aware of that. BIS, DCMS and UKTI offer access to finance, skills and export funding programmes. Then there is funding via arm’s-length bodies and other organisations, such as the British Film Institute, Arts Council England and Innovate UK.