Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, whether his Department has undertaken research on the value added by scriptwriting to the UK creative industries.

The Government supports scriptwriters as part of its broader sectoral support for the film sector, in particular through the approximately £70 million provided annually (including Lottery funding) to our lead agency for film the British Film Institute, and its funded partners. This funding supports screenwriting specific opportunities offered as part of the BFI Film Academy and BFI NETWORK, which invest in the next generation of screenwriting talent.

While the Department has not undertaken such specific research, the global box office performance of UK films and foreign productions which draw on UK source material is a good indicator of the value of scriptwriting. Of the top 200 grossing films released worldwide from 2010 to 2019, 26 are based on stories and characters created by UK writers, and collectively these films have earned $19 billion at the global box office,13% of the total.