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

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, if she will make an assessment of the implications for her policies of the (a) findings on crew shortages and associated issues and (b) recommendation on the strategic deployment of industry investment in the report by the British Film Institute entitled BFI Skills Review 2022, published on 29 June 2022.

The recently published Creative Industries Sector Vision sets out the Government’s ambition to maximise the potential of the creative industries. It details our plans to grow these industries by an extra £50bn and create a million extra jobs by 2030, and build a pipeline of talent and opportunity for young people through a Creative Careers Promise. The film and television industries play an important role in the wider creative industries.

We recognise how important it is for the film and television sector to have access to a pipeline of skilled workers. To better understand the skills needed in our Film and High-End TV sector, the Government commissioned the British Film Institute (BFI) to undertake the UK Film and High-End TV Skills Review, which the BFI published in June 2022.

We continue to work closely with the BFI and industry following the review. As set out in its National Lottery Funding Plan (2023-26), the BFI has committed £9 million of National Lottery funding to create Skills Clusters to support skills development and training at a local level across the UK, as recommended by the Review.

The BFI has also helped to elicit greater industry collaboration around training and workforce development, convening a new industry-led Skills Task Force to respond to the Review and develop a plan of action. I look forward to continued engagement with the BFI and the Task Force on their progress.