Speeches by Bryant.

“Just before you do that, I might take a look at it, because I am not looking forward to this bit. Obviously there are things that stand. You have been a bit critical that we have not said anything more about tax reliefs but, to be honest, we felt that we said what we needed to say on tax relief, for instance in film an…”

“You are right. We have not highlighted sections where this is brand-new and nothing has ever been done before. The two things that are different from the past, as I say, are access to finance and R&D.”

“No, the bit before that.”

“Well, that is new, but not to this. It is part of the wider Government since the general election last year.”

“Sorry, I didn’t hear what you said.”

“There has been an issue about whether they are getting paid swiftly enough, but we are already looking at that. That is just an administrative element, rather than a policy.”

“Well, half of it is new and half of it is old.”

“We have done that in the past and we are doing it again.”

“This is God’s own country and I am a mere servant.”

“You know what I am talking about. It is a shock to everyone.”

“That is new.”

“There is a lot in the plan. There were two key things that I was conscious of before we got to the general election, which had never really landed with regard to the creative industries. One thing was about access to finance. This was brought home to me when I went on a visit to Leeds last year. Women who run career te…”

“Bearing in mind what you said last week, Dame Caroline, I think it is about time that we celebrated the creative industries. This is not just a brief encounter; for many people it is a matter of life and death, and in the end there is hunger for change. I hope that by the matter of persuasion, you will accept that we a…”

“I am not the broadcasting Minister, so I have to be very careful when I tread in this space. I am the Minister for Creative Industries, so I have responsibility for the production of films and high-end television. As I have said to the Committee before, I want to achieve two things in this space. I want to make sure th…”

“If only!”

“That has already existed.”

“Of course, but who are the creators in the film and TV industry? They are actors, designers, writers, hair and make-up, cinematographers—they are an enormously wide group of people. Some of them are freelancers. Those are some of the things that we want to take forward with the freelance champion. We will be looking at…”

“Thank you.”

“The first thing we needed to do was get an agreement out of the European Union-UK summit, which we did, which was that we were to take forward further work on this. One of the issues for us is that we are the people who want this to happen. I think it is in the interests of every other country in Europe to enable prope…”

“You have had Jane Featherstone in the past, haven’t you? On whether or not we should do a streaming levy—which is one of the things where we disagree with the Committee—not everybody in the sector agrees that that is the route to go. Others would argue that it is better to tweak the tax credits. We are very alive to th…”