Asked by: Andrew Rosindell (Conservative - Romford)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, whether she has made an assessment of the potential merits of allocating financial support to the Romford Film Festival.
Answered by John Whittingdale
The Government recognises the significant cultural and economic value of cinemas, and the important role that festivals play in bringing communities and filmmakers together. Public support for UK film festivals is provided through a number of funding mechanisms, including the British Film Institute, the Government’s lead body for film and the moving image, and Local Authorities. For this reason, we have not made our own assessment of the potential merits of allocating financial support to the Romford Film Festival.
The BFI National Lottery Audience Projects Fund provides support to ambitious, audience-facing independent UK and international film and broader screen activity of national scale. The fund supports film exhibitors, distributors, and other organisations delivering audience development activity with multi-year and short-term projects as well as research and development. Applications to the fund are accepted all year round but must be received 16 weeks before the activity is due to start. Information including the funds eligibility criteria can be found on the BFI’s website:
The organisers of Romford Film Festival may also wish to engage with Film Hub London to understand what relevant support is available. Film Hub London is part of the BFI Film Audience Network (BFI FAN), a nationwide network of exhibitors taking cultural cinema to their communities. The Network is aimed at boosting film audiences across the UK, particularly for specialised and independent British film.
Asked by: Mike Kane (Labour - Wythenshawe and Sale East)
Question
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, how much the British Film Institute has spent in each region in each of the last three years.
Answered by Julia Lopez - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
At the heart of the British Film Institute’s ten year strategy, Screen Culture 2033, is a core principle for the work of the BFI to reach across the UK, so that everyone across the regions and all four nations can experience, create and benefit from screen culture.
The below table has been extracted from data that government publishes on identifiable expenditure in the regions and nations of the UK.
It shows all expenditure in 2021/22 prices, to provide a more accurate picture accounting for inflation.
BFI Country and Region Spend 2019-2022; 2021-22 prices
Country/Region | 2019-20 | 2020-21 | 2021-22 | Total |
Scotland | £1,629,000 | £2,132,000 | £2,049,000 | £5,810,000 |
Wales | £971,000 | £1,271,000 | £1,108,000 | £3,350,000 |
Northern Ireland | £5,076,000 | £5,029,000 | £6,565,000 | £16,670,000 |
England - North East | £802,000 | £1,284,000 | £889,000 | £2,975,000 |
England - North West | £2,234,000 | £4,162,000 | £2,675,000 | £9,071,000 |
England - Yorkshire and the Humber | £1,730,000 | £5,147,000 | £2,706,000 | £9,583,000 |
England - East Midlands | £1,560,000 | £6,522,000 | £1,727,000 | £9,809,000 |
England - West Midlands | £1,959,000 | £4,380,000 | £2,454,000 | £8,793,000 |
England - East | £6,200,000 | £15,438,000 | £6,944,000 | £28,582,000 |
England - London | £10,155,000 | £21,422,000 | £13,668,000 | £45,245,000 |
England - South East | £3,607,000 | £7,781,000 | £5,365,000 | £16,840,000 |
England - South West | £1,793,000 | £6,181,000 | £2,633,000 | £10,607,000 |
Outside UK | £971,000 | £1,330,000 | £1,006,000 | £3,307,000 |
Total | £38,687,000 | £82,169,000 | £49,786,000 | £170,642,000 |
Whilst BFI spending in London and the South East accounts for almost 36% of its total spending over 2019-22, this is due in part to the relatively high proportion of the industry based in London and the South East (70%) and also, due to the established method of recording awards based on applicant postcode, does not capture the broader outputs and widespread impact of organisations based in London and the South East but delivering on a regional or UK-wide basis.
For example, BFI National Lottery distribution awards - such as the award which supported Parasite to reach 1.6 million people across the UK - are used to give audiences everywhere the chance to enjoy the widest possible range of films; overall, titles supported by distribution awards have generated 4.5 million admissions across every corner of the UK over the course of 2017-2022. The Light Cinema Co. received £3 million from the Culture Recovery Fund and, whilst its head office is in London, the award was used to support its 10 cinemas, 7 of which are in the North of England. And ‘Into Film’, a London-based organisation who received £24 million from the BFI over 2017-2022, used this funding to deliver Film Clubs in UK schools, reaching in the last year alone more than 3 million children at over 6,500 schools across the UK. Through its National Lottery Funding Plan, the BFI will be devolving even more funding to organisations across the regions and nations through its National Lottery Skills Clusters Fund, which will invest £9 million in 6-7 clusters across the UK to lead on skills and training in their area, making sure people from a wide range of places have the opportunity to get into the industry. The BFI also funds a network of organisations across the UK - including in Nottingham, Birmingham, Sheffield and Manchester - to lead audience and talent development work in their respective regions and nations, with £15.2 million to be awarded to 11 partner organisations over the next three years.
Asked by: Ben Bradley (Conservative - Mansfield)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what steps he is taking to support young people from deprived backgrounds to progress in the creative industries.
Answered by Margot James
We recognise that more needs to be done to ensure that the workforce of the Creative Industries better reflects the diversity of UK society. The need to broaden access was highlighted in the 2018 Creative Industries sector deal.
Amongst other measures, we are providing £2 million seed funding for an industry-led Creative Careers Programme over the next 4 years to improve the supply of talent and open up opportunities to a broader audience.
Additionally, the British Film Institute (BFI) leads on a number of initiatives to encourage people from all backgrounds to pursue careers in the screen sector, from the BFI diversity standards to the BFI Film Academy. We will also continue to work with industry through the joint government-industry Creative Industry Council to open up employment opportunities in the sector. The CIC have identified this issue as a priority, setting out a set of actions to improve diversity across the industry in its “Create Together” growth strategy.