Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what steps her Department is taking to support British (a) film and (b) television (i) production and (ii) screening.

The Government is committed to ensuring that British film and television industries are able to deliver for audiences, expand their businesses, attract investment, and offer opportunities for employment across the UK.

Our generous tax reliefs play a significant role in boosting competitiveness, incentivising film and television production in the UK, and contributing to the industry’s - and the nation’s - economic growth. At Spring Budget 2023, the Government announced our continued commitment to upholding and expanding the creative industry tax reliefs, with film, high-end TV, children’s TV and animation tax reliefs to be reformed into a single Audio-Visual Expenditure Credit, which will provide a greater benefit than the current tax reliefs.

In recent years, the Government has also taken specific action to support the film and TV sectors to bounce back from the pandemic, with production now stronger than ever. This includes the £500 million Film and TV Production Restart Scheme, supporting over 100,000 jobs and productions worth more than £3 billion. In addition, the Culture Recovery Fund supported over 200 independent cinemas to ensure that films could continue to be screened following the pandemic.

To support independent screen content, including film, to grow internationally the Government launched the UK Global Screen Fund in April 2021 with initial funding of £7 million. The Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) has committed a further £21 million to this Fund over 2022 - 2025 to develop, distribute and promote independent UK screen content in international markets.

In addition, DCMS has funded the British Film Commission (BFC) with £5 million over four years. The BFC’s role is to maximise and support the production of film and TV in the UK and to strengthen and promote the UK’s film and TV infrastructure. With DCMS funding, the BFC is supporting the growth of the UK’s seven geographic production hubs to ensure that the combination of infrastructure, stage space and crew in those locations is set up to attract and accommodate even more major inward investment.