Lord Dafydd Elis-Thomas: Thank you very much, Dirprwy Lywydd. And may I say at the outset how much of a pleasure it is for me to be on my feet on a weekly basis here in the Siambr discussing issues with regard to the creative industries? I’m very grateful to the Conservatives for raising this matter. And it appears that we, in this debate here, have discovered something very interesting here in the Senedd across...
Lord Dafydd Elis-Thomas: Formally. Thank you.
Lord Dafydd Elis-Thomas: The arrangements with Bad Wolf on the rental of the vacant space in Pinewood is operational for the next 12 months, and the production work is ongoing, and the current buildings are all at capacity. That doesn't justify what happened in the past, but it does demonstrate the clear intention of the Government to be effective in this area. Thank you.
Lord Dafydd Elis-Thomas: Yes. Finally, I would like to say, the arrangements with Bad Wolf have been referred to—
Lord Dafydd Elis-Thomas: I'm also pleased that Jenny Rathbone and others have noted the importance of this sector for Wales. It happens to be a happy coincidence, for me, at least, that I am responding to this negative report, as it were, the day after I made a statement on Creative Wales. I will say a few more words about that before the end of my contribution. We have seen the substantial growth, with an annual...
Lord Dafydd Elis-Thomas: Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer, and I thank the committee Chair for the courteous and reasonable way he presented his report, and we do very much appreciate the content of this report and I'm pleased that he accepts that we, as a Government, have responded to each and every one of the recommendations, with the exception of one. We have set out clearly in the letter that I sent to the...
Lord Dafydd Elis-Thomas: Thank you very much for that. On your final point, the whole point of mapping venues is that we know exactly what's going on, and this money for the mapping exercise was introduced because we were very concerned that venues were closing, and we didn't even know about them. Now, what we hope we can then do is to find which venues currently we might be able to encourage, and we will find a...
Lord Dafydd Elis-Thomas: I would suggest to the Member that he goes out of this building and crosses a short stretch of water and turn left, and he will find a whole series of animators, a whole range of post-production activity, which is undertaken by these companies that exist in a building—in fact built by Welsh Government funding, before my time, in the time of my colleague. That wonderful yellow castle is...
Lord Dafydd Elis-Thomas: Yes, I did—two paragraphs.
Lord Dafydd Elis-Thomas: I'm more than happy to appear before the culture committee or any other committee so that you can scrutinise in more detail how we are developing our proposals on Creative Wales, but perhaps I should respond to two points at the end of that series of questions. First of all: there is no mention in this statement about fine arts—one of my major interests, as you will know. My very creative...
Lord Dafydd Elis-Thomas: I have no interest in catching up with Scotland, because in the way that they've established Creative Scotland, they have done something else. But I'm not going to comment on what they have done with the Scottish Arts Council; that's a matter for them. Creative England is a commercial organisation. Creative Wales is going to be an organisation—and I have already explained this in this...
Lord Dafydd Elis-Thomas: Including culture in developing the economy will be at the very heart of the aspirations of what we call Creative Wales, and there is no conflict at all, in my mind, between those two kinds of creativity—the creativity of business and the creativity in development and innovation. Partnership and collaboration are key to successful delivery. We work very closely with the creative businesses...
Lord Dafydd Elis-Thomas: Thank you very much, Deputy Presiding Officer. It gives me great pleasure to provide the Assembly with an update on our support for the creative industries sector. The creative industries sector gives us an opportunity to realise the benefits that the sector brings from two directions, from the economic side, and from the cultural side. We're trying to look at those two aspects of creative...
Lord Dafydd Elis-Thomas: Well, I have to disagree with my colleagues in the upper House. Clearly, I'm not a regular attender and neither is my colleague—it is rather ironic that we have two Members of the House of Lords in one department in this Assembly. The answer is that I don't think it is possible really to compare public spending in London through lottery funds with other parts of the United Kingdom—and...
Lord Dafydd Elis-Thomas: Thank you for that question. As we celebrate the twenty-fifth anniversary of National Lottery, I'm delighted to give you the figures that National Lottery players have supported over 50,000 projects across Wales, to the tune of £1.75 billion of investment. As part of my role as Minister, I have oversight of the National Lottery spend, and therefore have regular discussions with National...
Lord Dafydd Elis-Thomas: I certainly endorse the importance of geographical spread, and, again, clearly, I am a regular attender when there are Glamorgan matches at Llandrillo-yn-Rhos, but I would be the first to admit that that is not an adequate ground, because the boundary, unfortunately, is a bit close to the wicket, to the pitch. But I will ensure that those issues are discussed when I have my discussions with...
Lord Dafydd Elis-Thomas: Well, I hope it can. Obviously, it's a matter of timescale, but, again, I will ensure that, in my future discussions with Cricket Wales this season, I will ask them for a clearer indication of the likely implementation of such a target. As far as I'm concerned, it's always important to increase the spread of interest in sport. We have our major sports, which are no longer limited to the...
Lord Dafydd Elis-Thomas: Thank you very much for the question, and, indeed, I am a Glamorgan supporter, since I was first taken to St Helen's, not quite understanding what was going on there, about five years old at the time. What I will do is I will undertake to have a meeting with Cricket Wales and a discussion with the Glamorgan cricket club, and I will have an opportunity to do that fairly soon as the season is...
Lord Dafydd Elis-Thomas: I'm very grateful to you for your support on our activity. I have a particular interest, of course, because of my own background and my own practice, in the history of all faith communities and particularly the role of the Jewish community in the development of Wales, the development of business and capitalism and investment within Wales, especially in key periods of the industrial...
Lord Dafydd Elis-Thomas: Well, the answer to that must be 'yes'. I'm always encouraging the national museums and galleries to ensure that all aspects of the national collection that can be displayed across the country are displayed in that way. We have centres such as Oriel y Parc in St Davids, or some of the libraries—most recently I was at Haverfordwest opening a new library where there's a special relationship...
