Children: Television

Baroness Bonham-Carter of Yarnbury Excerpts

Tuesday 1st July 2014 Lords Chamber

[Lord Newby]

My Lords, the noble Lord will know that we changed the basis of film tax relief. But as far as last year is concerned, some £868 million was generated by 37 major international firms making the UK their production base. As far as TV is concerned, the reliefs that we introduced last year—we have figures for only nine months—show that some £276 million worth of production has benefited from the reliefs, of which some 58% is from inward investment.

[Baroness Bonham-Carter of Yarnbury (LD)]

My Lords, my noble friend said a moment ago that animation tax breaks had already seen benefits in children’s TV, so is it not self-evident that this should be extended to live children’s TV?

[Lord Newby]

My Lords, the slight problem with that line of argument is that it would open the way to tax breaks on virtually every kind of expenditure. At the moment, as noble Lords will be aware, the Government’s ability to make tax cuts is severely constrained by the overall financial situation.