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British Film and Television Industries (Communications Committee Report)

My Lords, it is a great pleasure to be the first to welcome the right reverend Prelate the Bishop of Gloucester, finally—if I may say so—to our debates. I congratulate him on a really excellent maiden speech. He comes to this House with a distinguished record, both as a priest and as a scholar, and—as he has just told us—with a very strong commitment to education and urban regeneration in his own diocese, which, again if I may say so, he described to us with such lively enthusiasm that I think those of us who are not lucky enough to live there already might immediately want to go and find somewhere there to set up home. I also note that he is the father of four daughters, and as one of four girls myself—with a brother bringing up the rear—I recognise and salute the challenge that that represents. In his speech today, he has put down a marker that tells us that we can expect a great deal from him in the future. I welcome him very warmly to the House and wonder whether the Select Committee on Communications possibly beckons. Yesterday, my son-in-law, hearing that I was going to speak in this debate, looked up from his newspaper—a rare thing you might think, somebody actually reading a newspaper, but he was—and said, "All I want to know is why there is never anything good on telly on a bank holiday". I thought that was an excellent question, and one that, in a way, this report addresses. I thank my noble colleague—if I may call him that—the noble Lord, Lord Fowler, for introducing this report so elegantly. I take this opportunity, along with my colleagues on the committee, to thank him for being a generous, impartial, and, where necessary, an extremely robust chairman. It has been a pleasure and a privilege to serve with him. His achievements will surely be more than enough to ensure that the Communications Committee is reinstated in the next Parliament. If it is, which I fervently hope it will be, I hope it will be lucky enough to be as well served by the Clerks and advisers who work on it as we have been. I also thank the Government for a commendably speedy response to the report and for making time to allow this debate to happen—just—before the election. I hope my noble friend on the Front Bench will forgive me if I say that speed may have been the enemy of reflection in some aspects of the response to the report. I do not mean that unkindly, but I hope that he will accept it as a mild criticism. Most issues raised by the committee have been covered by other speakers, but I want briefly to reinforce a couple of points. The first is the decline of UK-originated content for children and young people, which was mentioned by the noble Lord, Lord Fowler, and others. It was a matter of concern to every witness who gave evidence to us about it. It seems clear that the economic challenges faced by the television industry, and by the commercial companies in particular, which the report sets out in detail, are having a disproportionate effect on the creation of high quality programming for children—especially for the older age group. Even the chairman of Ofcom, quoted in the report, speaking to a Select Committee in another place just over a year ago, said that, ""we are sleepwalking into a situation where we do not have UK-generated content of a high quality for our kids. I believe that would be a very bad outcome"." It is pretty hard to disagree with that sentiment and, as has already been said, the Government have declined to accept the committee’s recommendation that tax credits should be extended to children’s programming on a trial basis, preferring to rely, at least to some extent, on the requirement that they have placed on Channel 4 in the Digital Economy Bill to include content for older children and young adults in its services. Although that new provision is very welcome, it is unlikely to be enough on its own to halt or reverse the decline in spending on children's programming, which is a mighty 48 per cent since 2003. It is surely not reasonable to expect Channel 4—obviously, in conjunction with the BBC—to bear that responsibility alone. I hope that the Government, when they are returned to office, as I am sure that they will be, will take another look at that issue. We must accept that money is in short supply in both the public and private sectors, but investment in our children's development, which is what high quality television programming represents, must surely always be a priority. My second point concerns training and education for the film and television industries, which was mentioned by several other speakers. Here, again, the committee received overwhelming evidence that greater investment in skills by funding bodies such as the UK Film Council, training institutions and the industries themselves is essential if the UK is to retain its competitive edge, particularly in areas such as animation and computer-generated design. In fairness, the Government's response acknowledges the seriousness of that issue, but the Government are perhaps less willing to recognise how quickly the UK's current prime position in the supply of top-quality production skills could slip away if we do not keep our eye on the ball. Recent policy emphasis on the so-called STEM subjects in universities has given the unfortunate impression that less value should attach to the disciplines that come under what we might call the creative umbrella. That is a false and unhelpful distinction. Our creative industries are among our most successful. As has been said, they need science, technology, engineering and mathematics graduates to recognise the opportunities that they can offer, along with opportunities for graduates in languages, literature, music, media and business studies. Ensuring that that point is reinforced when funding decisions are made by HEFCE, for example, is the Government’s responsibility. Those points have been made by the noble Lord, Lord McNally, and the noble Baroness, Lady Howe. Finally, I add a few words about the importance of the UK film industry, which continues to punch well above its weight in a market dominated, as we have heard, by the massive output of the Hollywood studios. We should be proud of the distinctive achievements of production companies such as Working Title and of the worldwide success of films produced by Channel 4 and the BBC—the noble Lord, Lord Fowler, and the noble Baroness, Lady Howe, remarked on that. I want in particular to celebrate the artists who contribute to those films and, to make the point clear, to note the names of a few who have done so well both in UK films and in Hollywood: people like Helen Mirren, Judi Dench, Kate Winslet—who has already been mentioned—Alan Rickman, Daniel Craig, our current James Bond, made at Pinewood, James McAvoy, Ewan McGregor and, new on the scene, Carey Mulligan. There are directors such as Sam Mendes, Danny Boyle, Stephen Daldry, Phyllida Lloyd and Stephen Frears; and writers such as David Hare, Tom Stoppard, Christopher Hampton and Frank Cottrell Boyce. It was Frank Cottrell Boyce, in his recent appearance on "Desert Island Discs", who said of the UK film industry, ""it’s not industry—it runs on good will and people working for nothing"." He also noted that it took 15 years for one of his scripts to get from its initial stage to being made into a film. What he said is to some extent true, as the committee's report touches on in the section headed, "Apprenticeships and Internships". That is why proper investment in training is so important, but talent continues to emerge, and many of our most gifted practitioners in the film began—and some still practise in—our publicly funded theatres. As we move towards a new Government, let us not forget, whatever our political allegiance, to nourish our creative industries at the grass roots to ensure a rich cultural heritage for our children and grandchildren.