Diolch, Dirprwy Lywydd. Rightly, the announcement of the arrival of Pinewood in Cardiff in 2014 was met with excitement and anticipation that such a world-renowned brand was coming to Wales and could bring an estimated £90 million to the Welsh economy and boost the Welsh film industry on an international level. Pinewood’s arrival offered opportunity and hope but, just four years later, the Welsh Government decided to terminate the lease and collaboration agreement it had in place with the company. The studio and the running of the media investment fund was brought under direct Welsh Government control. So what happened? What caused this love story to turn into a tragedy?

Well, to be honest, it really was a comedy of errors. The Welsh Government entered into a contract that lacked clarity in terms of operating arrangements and a collaboration agreement that did not explicitly make clear the roles and responsibilities of each partner. Not only was there a lack of clarity on the financial and economic returns expected through these agreements, but also a seeming lack of recognition about the conflict of interest caused by the arrangements. The Welsh Government entered into an agreement with a Pinewood subsidiary to manage the £30 million media investment budget, but officials failed to record or advise their Minister about the potential conflict of interest arising from Pinewood administering this budget and also providing its own London-based services to the industry.

We were told that the media investment panel was set up to mitigate this risk. We concluded that this was insufficient mitigation, not least as the perception of an advantage for Pinewood still existed across the industry and that this was a wider conflict than the individual projects being considered.