Source · Select Committees · Culture, Media and Sport Committee
Recommendation 23
23
Accepted in Part
Require AVEC productions to report spending breakdown across UK nations and regions.
Recommendation
The Government should require productions claiming AVEC to report a breakdown of their spending across the nations and regions of the UK. This would improve data on the national and regional distribution of production spend and support the case for any policy interventions such as potential uplifts to AVEC. (Recommendation, Paragraph 86)
Government response summary AI-generated
The government rejects requiring productions to report regional spending due to concerns about adding complexity to tax incentives, but agrees on the merits of better regional data and will engage with BFI and industry partners to explore voluntary reporting.
Summary of the government's response below — read the verbatim text to verify.
Government Response
Accepted in Part
HM Government · verbatim extract
Accepted in Part
The government has shown its commitment to keeping the UK’s Audio-Visual Expenditure Credit (AVEC) competitive by providing additional support for independent films at a rate of 53% and introducing a 5% uplift in relief for VFX costs as of 1 April 2025. We will continue to work with stakeholders to ensure the continued effectiveness of AVEC reliefs. The government regularly engages with the BFI and the British Film Commission on the competitiveness of the UK’s offer, and analysis of global incentives is produced regularly by Olsberg SPI.14 Government benchmarking global incentives every six months would be a disproportionate exercise, not least because what attracts film makers to the UK is much broader than just our competitive tax incentives, with government investment in infrastructure, funding to attract inward investment, and support for skills development also contributing to our overall competitiveness. There are a multitude of factors to consider when deciding on new tax reliefs beyond return on investment and sector impact, and the government is committed to ensuring that all public money is spent and targeted effectively across the full breadth of the creative industries and the economy. The Chancellor makes decisions on tax policy at fiscal events in the context of the wider public finances. One of the major attractions of the UK’s tax incentives, beyond their competitiveness, is the ease, simplicity and consistency of the process. The government therefore currently has no plans to introduce additional complexities on reporting spending across nations and regions. We do strongly agree with the Committee on the merits of having better data on regional spend, and government will engage with BFI and industry partners to better understand the feasibility of reporting regional spend on a voluntary basis. 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.
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