Clause 32
Finance (No. 2) Bill
6:00 pm
Theresa Villiers (Shadow Chief Secretary To the Treasury, Treasury; Chipping Barnet, Conservative)
I will take the hon. Gentleman’s word on that, but still I think that there is an important point to address. I would welcome the Economic Secretary’s reassurance on how co-production will be treated under the framework generally.
Amendment No. 34 deals with clause 34, which defines production expenditure and core expenditure. My amendment is about the definition of the latter. Core expenditure has a crucial part to play in the framework before us, because it determines the size of the tax break. Amendment No. 34 seeks to add development costs to the expenditure that can qualify as expenditure giving rise to the tax break. Development costs include scouting for a film, looking for good film ideas, purchasing an option to buy the film rights of a book at some point in future, and script development. Such activities have genuine costs that make up part of the production process.