Asked by: Chris White (Conservative - Warwick and Leamington)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what progress has been made on the rollout of superfast broadband in (a) Warwick and (b) the Warwick and Leamington constituency.
Answered by Lord Vaizey of Didcot
Current estimates suggest that almost 90% of premises in the Warwick and Leamington constituency are subject to commercial rollout, and a further 5% of premises (2,369) now have coverage as a result of the Government's Superfast Broadband programme.
Based on DCMS modelled estimates and current delivery plans, 96% of premises in the Warwick and Leamington constituency will have access to superfast broadband by December 2017. Early gainshare funding that BT will return in response to the high levels of take-up being achieved, could help extend coverage further.
Asked by: Chris White (Conservative - Warwick and Leamington)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what recent assessment he has made of the contribution of creative industries to the economy.
Answered by Lord Vaizey of Didcot
The creative industries continue to play a key role in our economic recovery, outperforming almost all other sectors of the economy. Figures published on 30th June showed the creative industries accounted for 1.8 million jobs in the UK in 2014, an increase of nearly 16% since 2011, with a further 900,000 creative jobs in the wider economy.
Asked by: Chris White (Conservative - Warwick and Leamington)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what steps his Department is taking to support the video games industry.
Answered by Lord Vaizey of Didcot
Government is committed to working with the creative industries, including through the Creative Industries Council, to further boost their growth. Our support specifically for the video games sector includes tax relief which was introduced from 1 April 2014. To date 25 projects have been formally certified as qualifying projects under the scheme. A further 21 new applications have been received in December alone. We have also invested to ensure that games companies have the skills they need, for example with DCMS match-funding for skills initiatives like Creative Skillset’s Trainee Finder scheme. As of October 2014, Trainee Finder had placed 122 trainees in 67 video games companies.
Asked by: Chris White (Conservative - Warwick and Leamington)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, how many meetings officials in his Department have had with video games businesses in the last 12 months.
Answered by Lord Vaizey of Didcot
Over the last 12 months, DCMS officials have met regularly with the video games industry for example to discuss topics such as the video games tax relief, video game sector statistics and export and inward investment opportunities.
Asked by: Chris White (Conservative - Warwick and Leamington)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, if he will estimate the contribution made by the video games industry to UK GDP in (a) 2010 and (b) 2013.
Answered by Lord Vaizey of Didcot
Latest indicative estimates from the DCMS Creative Industries Economic Estimates release show that GVA for the computer games industry in the UK was £540 million in 2012 and £443 million in 2010 (data for 2013 will be published on 13th January 2015). Estimates are in current prices and do not account for the effects of inflation.
To note, these indicative estimates of the size of the computer games industry are based on the ONS Annual Business Survey. This is a sample survey and estimates at this level of detail for a single year should be treated with caution as they are volatile. ONS data covers businesses which are VAT or PAYE registered only and does not include the contribution of micro-businesses. For these reasons the computer games data in the release are presented in an annex alongside the headline Creative Industries estimates with these caveats stated.
To note these data are already available at:
https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/creative-industries-economic-estimates-january-2014
Recent research by Nesta that seeks to include the broader contribution of micro-businesses together will official suggests that the contribution of computer games could be substantially higher.
http://www.nesta.org.uk/publications/map-uk-games-industry
Asked by: Chris White (Conservative - Warwick and Leamington)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, if he will estimate the number of video games companies based in the UK in (a) 2012 and (b) 2013.
Answered by Lord Vaizey of Didcot
Whilst the DCMS has made no official estimate of the number of companies operating in the video games sector recent analysis undertaken by Nesta and the trade body UKIE showed that there could be up to 1,902 video games companies active in 2014.
Asked by: Chris White (Conservative - Warwick and Leamington)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, if he will estimate the number of people employed in the video games industry in (a) England, (b) Warwickshire and (c) Warwick and Leamington in (i) 2010 and (ii) 2013.
Answered by Lord Vaizey of Didcot
In January 2014, the DCMS Creative Industries Economic Estimates showed that there were 15,000 jobs in the computer games industry in the UK in 2012. This is an increase from 2011, when there were 13,000 jobs in the computer games industry. An estimate for the number of jobs in the computer games industry in the UK in 2013 will be published as part of the next update to the Creative Industries Economic Estimates in January 2015. Estimates are based on the ONS Annual Population survey and analysis at lower levels of geography is not robust.