UK Gov't 'Looking At Introducing Further Tax Breaks'

The UK Government is examining further games industry tax breaks, said Culture Secretary Ben Bradshaw in a House of Commons discussion on the Department for Culture, Media and Sport's Digital Britain report. "We do recognize the importance of the video games industry to the British economy," said Bradshaw, according to an online transcription from They Work For You. "Research and development tax credits are available for the industry, and we are looking at introducing further tax breaks," he added. During the same House Of Commons session, Bradshaw said the UK government "will deal with the issue of [game] classification and other announcements" as part of a final report. In recent years, the UK has seen increasing conflict over the proper ratings standard for games, with the British Board of Film Classification advocating unifying games under the same system it uses for movies. However, the European games trade body ISFE and UK trade group Tiga prefer to have a game-specific solution in the voluntary, pan-European PEGI ratings system. The Digital Britain report is currently in interim phase, and contains over 20 recommendations and proposals on issues related to a wide range of subjects also including broadband access, digital delivery of public services and content rights.