Pact: productions will close due to limited Covid insurance

The end of the government's £500m Production Restart scheme will "inevitably" force productions to close due to a continued shortage of commercial Covid-related insurance providers, Pact has warned.

Pact said it was disappointed that when the scheme ends on 30 April, the government has not offered any short-term transition to the fully operational “viable commercial insurance” market it had promised.

With a limited pool of insurance providers covering Covid risks, producers now face ‘a very messy period’ in which some productions will not be covered.

Some commercial companies have pledged to underwrite the risks of Covid, but Pact said “this will not yet be at the capacity that is required by the market”.

Launched in July 2020, four months after the first lockdown halted swathes of UK production, the scheme has supported more than 90,000 jobs and productions totalling £3bn.

As a result, Pact said there will “inevitably be some productions that will not be able to get cover for Covid-related losses and may subsequently not be able to proceed”.