Question to the Department for Business and Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what steps he plans to take to increase the evidence base on the impacts of merger and acquisition-led FDI projects in the creative industries.

The Department for Business and Trade (DBT) is cognisant of the increasing levels of Mergers & Acquisitions (M&A) driven Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), as highlighted in the Creative Industries Policy and Evidence Centre's (PEC) recent "FDI in the Creative Industries" report, November 2024.

A new partnership will be announced shortly between DBT, the Creative PEC and the CoStar Foresight Lab, supported by DCMS. The Creative Business Panel is a longitudinal study which will involve 5 waves of in-depth industry research, running to 2028. It will provide unprecedented insight into what drives growth in the sector, and crucially it will be able to determine for the first time how potential growth factors, including M&A, interrelate.