§ Miss McIntoshTo ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer (1) what definition of a film he uses in extending tax allowances to film production; and how many(a) films and (b) television programmes have benefited from such allowances in the last five years; [31716]
(2) what estimate he has made of the extent to which tax allowances have been taken up by(a) independent film makers and (b) television shows. [36110]
§ Dawn PrimaroloThere are three main measures providing enhanced tax relief for the production or acquisition of films. A "film" is defined in Schedule 1 of the Films Act 1985 as including
any record, however made, of a sequence of visual images, which is a record capable of being used as a means of showing that sequence as a moving picture".We estimate that between 1 July 1997 and 30 June 2001 1,433 productions have benefited from the films tax reliefs.