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

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what steps her Department is taking to help support creative industries in Ossett and Denby Dale constituency.

The creative industries sector is one of eight growth-driving sectors identified in the government’s Industrial Strategy. We will publish a Creative Industries Sector Plan to drive growth in the late spring.

Creative industries GVA grew at 1.5 times the rate of UK GVA between 2010 and 2023 (35.4% vs 22.3%).

In 2023, the sector employed 2.4m people, and contributed £124bn in UK GVA, more than 5% of total UK GVA. In the 2024 Global Innovation Index the UK ranked third for creative outputs.

The government is committed to tackling barriers to growth, including skills shortages and gaps, to drive growth in the sector and across the economy.

At the Creative Industries Growth Summit in January, the Secretary of State announced West Yorkshire as a priority region for the Creative Industries, and one of six Mayoral Combined Authorities to receive additional funding to be approved as part of the upcoming Spending Review.

Businesses in West Yorkshire, including in Ossett and Denby Dale constituency, are able to benefit from support from DCMS and its arms-length bodies. This includes through the £3m Creative Careers Programme, which provides schoolchildren with information, advice, and guidance on creative career paths, and the £28.4m Create Growth Programme, which supports high-growth creative businesses to scale up and become investment ready.

The Arts Council England 2023-2026 Investment Programme is also investing £444m each year into arts and culture in England and is providing around £22m per year to cultural organisations in the Yorkshire and The Humber region.