Question

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what assessment his Department has made of the effect of digitisation and online platforms on the contribution to the UK economy of the book industry.

The Department has not made an assessment of the effect of digitisation and online platforms on the contribution to the UK economy of the book industry. However, the ‘UK Book Publishing Industry in Statistics’ produced by the Publishers Association (PA), shows that in the invoiced value of UK publisher sales of books fell 2 per cent in 2013 to £3.4bn, with a 5 per cent decrease in physical book sales and despite a 19 per cent growth in digital sales. Digital sales now represent 15 per cent of UK publishers’ total digital and physical book sales.