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

To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made (1) of the difficulties in obtaining insurance cover faced by people working in the creative industries, and (2) of the effect that such difficulties may have on those people’s creative output; and what plans they have to support such people.

The Government has announced a £500m compensation scheme to assist the film and TV production sectors who are ready to return to work, but are precluded from doing so by the difficulties they face obtaining insurance cover for Covid-19.

The new UK-wide £500 million Film and TV Production Restart Scheme will get TV and film productions across the country that have been halted or delayed specifically by a lack of insurance back up and running by giving productions the confidence they need that they will be supported if future losses are incurred due to Covid-19.

It will fill the gap left by the lack of available insurance and cover coronavirus-related losses for cast member and crew illnesses and filming delays or disruptions caused by the Covid-19. The scheme will directly support up to 40,000 - 50,000 jobs in the film and TV production industry.

A targeted intervention in the TV and film sector was considered necessary for its restart. The government will continue to monitor what further action is needed to support the re-opening of the economy and any potential further interventions would be assessed on a case by case basis. With regard to other creative industries, we are regularly in touch with a range of stakeholders from across the Creative Industries, including via ministerially-chaired roundtables, to ensure that we fully understand the range of issues affecting them during the Covid crisis and recovery period.

In terms of supporting the creative workforce, other recently announced sector-specific schemes include the £1.57bn funding package for the arts, culture and heritage industries, which comes on top of the multi-billion pound support already made available to the cultural and creative sectors, including the Job Retention Scheme and the Self Employed Income Support Scheme.