During the Covid-19 pandemic, the Government launched its Film and TV Production Restart Scheme, a Government-funded insurance scheme for the UK film and TV sector when coronavirus-related insurance was not readily available on the market.

The Scheme will now close for applications on 30 April 2022 and will only provide cover until the end of June 2022. The Government says that as the sector emerges from the pandemic, brokers and insurers will now work with the film and TV industry to manage risk so that productions can go ahead without the taxpayer needing to step in.

The Government says that the Scheme “made sure jobs and firms were protected” and “played a huge role” in helping a record £5.6 billion spend on UK film and high-end TV production in 2021. Productions worth more than £3 billion, including Killing Eve, Peaky Blinders and Gogglebox, were insured through the Scheme.

The Government says that “the risk to productions posed by coronavirus is greatly diminished and total production shutdowns are far less likely to occur”. As a result, the Government is confident it no longer needs to intervene in this market.

The Government says that in total the scheme supported 1,172 productions across 1588 locations including 158 locations in Scotland, 118 in Wales, 25 in Northern Ireland, 177 in the north west of England and 137 in Yorkshire and the Humber. To read the Government’s press release in full, click here.