Campaign
Overview
During the early part of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic in 2020, the entire production sector was brought to a standstill when a strict lockdown across the UK was implemented by the Government to try to contain the spread of the virus.
As the lockdown restrictions started to ease and people were able to return to work, productions were hindered from restarting by a lack of insurance cover.
Pact's Chief Executive, John McVay was selected to lead the industry's working group on insurance, which was part of the BFI’s Screen Sector Task Force set up to help the sector through the pandemic. Along with UK broadcasters, Pact involved many leading production companies in the group, which led negotiations with Government to try to reach a solution.
The Film & TV Production Restart Scheme was introduced in July 2020. It made a £500m Government fund available to compensate productions after they had restarted, only where costs were then incurred due to delays or abandonment as a result of Coronavirus. Productions had to provide evidence that they couldn’t otherwise return to work because of a lack of insurance. The Scheme was administered by Marsh Commercial on behalf of the Government.
Campaign
Impact
A Government impact evaluation carried out by Nordicity and Saffery found that over the span of 23 months, the Scheme supported 1,259 individual film and TV productions and £3.06 billion in production expenditure.
High-end TV (HETV) programming accounted for over half of this total production expenditure (£1.67 billion). The costs to deliver the Scheme were expected to total £5.7 million; claims for compensation were (as of March 2023) expected to total £49.5 million, thereby bringing total Scheme costs to £55.2 million. The Scheme collected £35.6 million in registration fees from producers. As a result, the net cost to the Government was expected to be £19.6 million.
John McVay and the then Pact Council Vice Chair, Hakan Kousetta were applauded by the sector for having negotiated a successful solution with Government, which enabled productions to start shooting again and meant thousands of cast and crew members could return to work. John and Hakan won a Special Recognition Award from the Production Guild of Great Britain that year for their contributions and Pact won a Special Award from the Royal Television Society for its work supporting the industry through the pandemic.