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British Film and Television Industries (Communications Committee Report)

My Lords, I think we will ignore that last point. This has been a good debate. I just correct the noble Lord on one point; all my colleagues follow me on the inadequacies which were shown by Project Kangaroo. I congratulate the right reverend Prelate the Bishop of Gloucester on his maiden speech. The right reverend Prelate the Bishop of Manchester made a great contribution to our committee. In our review of the BBC, the future of "Thought for the Day" provided some of our more diverting moments during that committee and a triumph—if I may say so myself—for my chairmanship, by getting agreement from the right reverend Prelate the Bishop of Manchester and the noble Lord, Lord Maxton, on the Back Bench, who does not altogether share his religious views, on this. I can see that the right reverend Prelate the Bishop of Gloucester is a great recruit to what I hope will be the new committee. I thank everybody who has spoken in this debate: the noble Baroness, Lady McIntosh, who underlined the importance of these industries and also the British actors and directors and the contribution they make; the noble Baroness, Lady Eccles, who pointed out how the tax system could be improved further; the noble Earl, Lord Glasgow, with his experience, who surveyed the history of the British film industry and the difficulties of financing—a similar point was made by the noble Lord, Lord Gordon, who again emphasised the funding problems and the "international incentives arms race" which is a memorable and very descriptive phrase to describe it; the noble Lord, Lord Inglewood, who, with all his experience, warned against a BBC monopoly in regional news and the noble Viscount, Lord Falkland, who came in right at the end of the debate. I also thank the Front-Bench speakers, who set out their rival stalls. There was, encouragingly, much more agreement between them than one might have thought. The Minister was not exactly correct when he said that we were grudging about the Government’s admission on tax credit for video games. We supported that; we wanted to see it extended to children’s programmes. I think there is a strong case for that. Finally, I particularly thank two of the crucial supporters in the setting up of this committee; the noble Lord, Lord McNally, the leader of the Liberal Democrats, and the noble Baroness, Lady Howe, whose persistence finally triumphed. Many of the members of this committee will now stand down—all that we hope is that this committee has now established itself and that it will continue after the election, whichever party happens to win that election. Motion agreed.