Films (Definition of ““British Film””) (No. 2) Order 2006

My Lords, I am most grateful to the noble Lord, Lord Clement-Jones, for his questions and comments. I was a governor of the British Film Institute for 12 years. I have discussed the measure with film-makers. Obviously, the Film Council has been consulted. Nobody in the film industry with whom we have spoken shares the worries expressed by the noble Lord, Lord Clement-Jones, which are legitimate. As I said, the order was introduced to make the new tax reliefs compatible with European law on state aid. There is little room for manoeuvre or negotiation; we are through that stage. However, the underlying message is that, as far as we can tell, practitioners in the British film industry are happy with the order. If that were otherwise, the Film Council—a body that I know very well—would certainly tell us. The section on cultural hubs has been considerably reduced because the Commission felt that it was not overtly cultural and that its economic focus had the potential to distort competition between member states. Points will be awarded if at least 50 per cent of the work in any one of the categories is carried out in the UK. The new tax relief based on UK spend will continue to incentivise the use of UK facilities. Which films made recently will qualify? Films such as Harry Potter, to which the noble Lord referred, ““Vera Drake””, ““The Queen””, ““Children of Men”” and Narnia, many of which were shown at the London Film Festival, will all pass the new cultural test. We are confident that films such as James Bond will do well under the new cultural test due to their British characters, underlying material, English language and the fact that, typically, some of their stories are set in the UK. Films that are not set in the UK also fare well under the test. ““The Constant Gardener”” has been mentioned, but ““The Last King of Scotland””, which is about Idi Amin and is just about to open, could well pass the new test. The noble Lord asked about the interaction between the cultural test and the expenditure test, which involve different departments. The two departments have a history of co-operating. The whole scheme is designed with input from both departments and will ensure that burdens on film-makers are minimised. I hope that I have answered the noble Lord’s questions. If I have missed any, I shall write to him. I stress that the purpose of the order is to get agreement with the commissioners.