Speeches by Bryant.

“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.”

“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…”

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

“Honestly, I was pleasantly surprised at the feedback that we have had on the back of the plan. I hosted an online call for the best part of 70 or 80 people. It was overwhelmingly positive, because we had managed to nail the two things I have already referred to that previous plans had not been able to delve into or had…”

“All of this happened before elements of the spending review could be unpacked. One of the most successful things that we have been able to do this time in the spending review is not only having a three-year spending review, which makes it much easier for people to be able to make longer-term decisions, but the fact tha…”

“People have not said that back to me. I would be interested to hear what interventions they would like to see in their sector. On publishing, for instance, I have met with the Publishers Association several times. I went to the London book fair and I have listened to its concerns, but those are mostly around IP and cop…”

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

“We have been giving £1 million for the last few years, and we have not made a firm commitment yet about what we will end up doing.”

“If you think about the museums and galleries that we run on behalf of the UK—and they are arm’s length bodies—they absorb a large chunk of our funding. They had a good settlement this last year: it was roughly 5% above inflation and we have been privately congratulated by all of them.”

“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.”

“Yes, I think it is. Every Government Minister who ever sits before a Select Committee would always love to have twice as much money to invest in everything, and there are areas where we still have a great deal of work to do. I think we have identified the key sectors, which I see as a spectrum in the creative industrie…”

“Thank you. Can I go now?”

“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…”

“If only!”

“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…”

“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…”

“One of the questions that I was specifically asked was whether it will be a Minister. No, it will not be a Minister. It will be somebody with more independence than that.”