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

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what steps he has taken to ensure that the British Film Institute fulfils its responsibilities to support the Scottish film sector.

My department continues to work closely with its Arm’s Length Body, the British Film Institute, to ensure it meets the full range of its responsibilities, including to support the film sector nationwide. In its ongoing support for the Scottish film sector, the Government has worked with the BFI to ensure a wide range of funding and initiatives are available across Scottish talent development, production and heritage. In addition, recent Covid-secure guidance has been developed with input from across the nations to support in safely producing films in Scotland. Screen Scotland have been part of the Screen Sector Taskforce looking at the impact of Covid and recovery measures for the sector, in collaboration with DCMS and BFI.

Examples of support that have been given to the Scottish film industry include the BFI Audience and Film Funds, which offer funding covering development, production, distribution and promotion, supporting Scottish films and Scottish audiences; and Film Hub Scotland, which receives an annual BFI Lottery award as part of the BFI Film Audience Network to increase and diversify Scottish audiences. In addition, young people in Scotland have access to the BFI Film Academy and Future Film offer, with four Scottish partners delivering short courses in 20/21 and a well-established annual Screen Craft Skills residential. Furthermore, Film City Futures and Glasgow Film were recently awarded £1m from the BFI and Screen Scotland to support new and emerging talent.

Finally, in recent years the BFI worked in partnership with the Scottish Screen Archive in the Unlocking Film Heritage programme, which resulted in substantial digitisation of films from and about Scotland.