Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what recent assessment he has made of the contribution to the UK economy of (a) design and (b) design skills.
We recognise the significant contribution design makes to the UK economy,
particularly as a key factor in the production of services and goods across a wide range of sectors. According to DCMS economic estimates design and designer fashion exports in 2016 were £380m, a 9.6% increase from 2015.
The Design Council produced a report into the Design Economy in 2018 which estimates that in 2015 the total value of exports where design had made a key contribution was £48.4 billion. The report also found that gross value added generated by the design economy increased by 52% between 2009 and 2016, with over 1.69 million people employed in the design economy and over 78,000 design intensive firms operating in the UK in 2017.