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 support creative industries in (a) South Holland and the Deepings constituency and (b) Lincolnshire.

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 across the whole of the UK in the late spring.

Businesses across Lincolnshire, including South Holland and The Deepings, are able to benefit from support from DCMS and its arms-length bodies.

At the Creative Industries Growth Summit in January, the Secretary of State for DCMS announced a series of measures aimed at driving growth in the country’s creative businesses.

This included the continuation of the Create Growth Programme, which will receive £16.3 million towards its continuation during the 2025/26 financial year to support high-growth creative businesses to scale up and become investment ready. The East Midlands Create Growth Programme region covers the Lincolnshire area and includes the University of Lincoln as a key partner.

Also included was a commitment from the British Business Bank to increase the scale of its support for the Creative Industries, strengthening investment in creative R&D from UKRI, and bringing forward changes so that shorter apprenticeships are available from August 2025, recognising the particular needs of the creative industries.