First Report - British film and high-end television

Select Committee

Culture, Media and Sport Committee HC 328 10 April 2025

Report Status Government responded

Conclusions & Recommendations 68 items (37 recs)

Source View on Parliament website

Government Response (AI assessment · 68 of 68 classified)

Accepted 17

Accepted in Part 7

Acknowledged 12

Deferred 11

Not Addressed 3

Rejected 18

Government response

4th Special Report - British film and high-end television: Government Response · published 3 Jul 2025

Read the government response ↗ Response on the tracker

Recommendations & Conclusions

17 results

6 Conclusion Accepted

UK Global Screen Fund delivers value but is insufficient for independent film sector needs.

Conclusion

The UK Global Screen Fund delivers excellent value for money, but is insufficient in level and scope to provide the support that our independent film sector requires. (Conclusion, Paragraph 32) 100

Government Response Summary

The government agrees the UK Global Screen Fund is insufficient and has committed to scaling it up from £7 million to £18 million per year as part of a new £75 million Screen Growth Package (2026–2029).

Department for Culture, Media and Sport

7 Recommendation Accepted

Increase UK Global Screen Fund budget in line with BFI Spending Review bid.

Recommendation

The Government should increase the budget for the UK Global Screen Fund in line with the BFI’s Spending Review bid to provide certainty and maximise the potential return on investment. (Recommendation, Paragraph 33)

Government Response Summary

The government agrees and has committed to increasing the UK Global Screen Fund budget from £7 million to £18 million per year as part of its new £75 million Screen Growth Package (2026–2029).

Department for Culture, Media and Sport

10 Conclusion Accepted

Domestic HETV, vital for UK identity and talent, faces urgent threats without intervention

Conclusion

Culturally British domestic HETV is vital to the UK’s identity, national conversations and talent pipeline, but it is under threat. Without urgent intervention, history will repeat itself and the problems that have been seen in independent film will extend to … Read more

Government Response Summary

The government fully supports the report's premise about the vital contribution of UK film and HETV, acknowledging the need for active support and outlining existing competitive tax incentives, business rates relief, and new measures from its Creative Industries Sector Plan.

Department for Culture, Media and Sport

18 Conclusion Accepted

Government policymaking and implementation for tax incentives is too slow for global competitiveness

Conclusion

The Government is right to commit to maintaining the competitiveness of the UK’s tax incentives, and changes must be balanced with stability. Yet the production sector is much more agile than Government, and the time it took to reform expenditure … Read more

Government Response Summary

The government states it has already shown commitment to keeping AVEC competitive by providing additional support for independent films and introducing a 5% uplift for VFX costs from April 2025, and will continue to work with stakeholders.

Department for Culture, Media and Sport

22 Recommendation Accepted

Prioritise growth sectors like film and HETV in business rate reforms to support investment.

Recommendation

In delivering its promised reform of business rates, the Government should prioritise growth sectors such as film and HETV and ensure reforms support, rather than undermine, investment in them. (Recommendation, Paragraph 81)

Government Response Summary

The government has accepted the recommendation, stating it is transforming business rates in co-design with creative sectors and has already introduced a 40% reduction for film studios until 2034. It will publish an interim report on business rates reform this summer with further policy details by Autumn Budget 2025.

Department for Culture, Media and Sport

29 Conclusion Accepted

ScreenSkills remains inadequate in addressing urgent film and HETV skills challenges.

Conclusion

We are not convinced ScreenSkills is up to the challenge of delivering meaningful action on skills and training. It has been slow to grasp the urgency of the situation, to identify its priorities and performance indicators and ultimately to tackle … Read more

Government Response Summary

The government agrees public funding for ScreenSkills must be linked to effective delivery, stating that current grant funding for the Creative Careers Programme is already tied to specific outcomes and ScreenSkills is delivering new work under its five-year strategy.

Department for Culture, Media and Sport

30 Recommendation Accepted

Link future public funding for ScreenSkills to specific, measurable performance outcomes.

Recommendation

We recommend that the Government link any future public funding for ScreenSkills to specific, measurable outcomes based on it publishing and meeting ambitious and robust performance indicators. (Recommendation, Paragraph 108)

Government Response Summary

The government agrees that public funding for ScreenSkills should be linked to effective delivery and notes that 2025/26 grant funding for the Creative Careers Programme is already tied to specific, measurable outcomes.

Department for Culture, Media and Sport

35 Conclusion Accepted

DCMS lacks sufficient influence in driving creative industries skills agenda across Government.

Conclusion

Skills will be vital to the ability of the film and HETV sectors to contribute to the Government’s industrial strategy, but the Department for Culture, Media and Sport does not have enough of a stake in driving the skills agenda … Read more

Government Response Summary

The government commits to refining the Growth and Skills offer with industry, introducing shorter and flexi-job apprenticeships from August 2025, and launching new short courses from April 2026 to address specific skills needs in the creative industries. It is also exploring the portability of apprenticeships.

Department for Culture, Media and Sport

36 Conclusion Accepted

Clear need to convince educators and young people about film and HETV career viability.

Conclusion

The range of roles required to make film and HETV means entire cohorts of sixth-form students could find jobs in the industry that fit their skills and interests, and building awareness of career opportunities is essential to attracting new talent … Read more

Government Response Summary

The government agrees on the need to convince young people about viable careers in film and HETV, highlighting existing initiatives like the Creative Careers Programme, an upcoming £3 million creative careers service from 2026, and the scaling up of the BFI Film Academy.

Department for Culture, Media and Sport

37 Conclusion Accepted

Launch a national campaign highlighting film and HETV employment opportunities and required skills.

Conclusion

The Government and BFI should launch a national awareness campaign highlighting the employment opportunities offered by film and HETV, and the range of skills the industry requires. (Recommendation, Paragraph 127)

Government Response Summary

The government commits to a communications campaign as part of the Creative Careers Programme, launching a refreshed £3 million per year creative careers service from 2026, and scaling up the BFI Film Academy to promote employment opportunities in film and HETV.

Department for Culture, Media and Sport

40 Recommendation Accepted

Systemic working condition issues persist in film and HETV, causing worker loss.

Recommendation

The film and HETV industry will continue to lose workers if it does not address systemic issues with working conditions, and the Government should hold it accountable for doing so. The prioritisation of the predominantly freelance creative industries in the … Read more

Government Response Summary

The government accepts the need for a dedicated freelance voice and will appoint a creative freelance champion within DCMS by 2025 to advocate for the sector. It also highlights broader measures to strengthen rights and protections for the self-employed.

Department for Culture, Media and Sport

42 Recommendation Accepted

Lack of industry support undermines Creative Industries Independent Standards Authority.

Recommendation

It is in the film and HETV industry’s interests to tackle bullying and harassment through effective self-regulation. Yet for the Creative Industries Independent Standards Authority (CIISA) to operate effectively, the industry must see supporting it financially and ideologically to be … Read more

Government Response Summary

The government states the Secretary of State has unequivocally supported CIISA and reserves the right to intervene if the industry does not provide forthcoming support, thereby sending a strong message to compel industry backing.

Department for Culture, Media and Sport

44 Recommendation Accepted

Film and HETV sectors remain highly under-representative despite progress towards inclusion.

Recommendation

The industry’s attempts to become more inclusive and representative of communities across the UK have made some progress in terms of the stories that are being told and the people working in front of and behind the camera. But the … Read more

Government Response Summary

The government agrees with the need for greater inclusivity and commits to expanding the DCMS-funded Creative Careers Programme for young people, launching a refreshed £3 million per year creative careers service from 2026, and scaling up the BFI Film Academy to reach a greater diversity of young people.

Department for Culture, Media and Sport

45 Recommendation Accepted

Significantly increase BFI funded short film schemes in the nations and regions.

Recommendation

We recommend that the BFI significantly increase the number of funded short film schemes in the nations and regions. This could be rapidly delivered though BFI Skills Clusters by targeting funding to schemes giving the next generation of filmmakers the … Read more

Government Response Summary

The government welcomes the recommendation and highlights the BFI's existing NETWORK programme, which supports early career filmmakers across the UK. It states the BFI regularly reviews its offer and will continue to champion new filmmakers, but does not commit to a significant increase in schemes.

Department for Culture, Media and Sport

51 Conclusion Accepted

Film and TV sectors need support to responsibly embrace generative AI growth potential

Conclusion

Industry guidelines based around protecting human creativity in the use of generative AI are welcome, but the film and TV sectors are calling out for help to embrace the growth potential of generative AI in a way that is fair, … Read more

Government Response Summary

The government commits to appointing an AI Sector Champion and is considering the case for regulation on labelling generative AI outputs, having recently held a Copyright and AI consultation, to help the sector embrace AI fairly and responsibly.

Department for Culture, Media and Sport

52 Recommendation Accepted

Fund BFI’s development of an AI observatory and tech demonstrator hub

Recommendation

At the Spending Review, the Government should fund the BFI’s development of an AI observatory and tech demonstrator hub to enable it to provide effective leadership around the industry’s use of AI. (Recommendation, Paragraph 186)

Government Response Summary

The government is investing £25 million in five new CoSTAR research and development labs and two showcase spaces, which will include a tech demonstrator and other capabilities, and will work with the BFI to deliver this proposition.

Department for Culture, Media and Sport

61 Conclusion Accepted

BFI responsibilities expanded without commensurate long-term grant-in-aid support increase.

Conclusion

Too often the BFI’s responsibilities have been expanded by the Government without a commensurate, long-term increase in the grant-in-aid support available to it. That has put the UK’s reputation with inward investors at risk and could undermine the growth of … Read more

Government Response Summary

The government has provided a £1 million increase in the BFI’s Grant-in-Aid for 2024/25 and 2025/26, committing to continue this funding into the next Spending Review period (2026–2029) to provide stability for the Certification Unit.

Department for Culture, Media and Sport