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

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment she has made of the competitiveness of the UK visual effects sector.

The UK is a global hub of talent and is home to many of the world’s biggest VFX studios. The UK’s visual effects (VFX) sector is highly competitive, competing successfully with production centres in the USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, India, South East Asia, and Europe, to secure substantial inward investment.

The government is committed to supporting the UK’s visual effects industry, ensuring that they are able to remain competitive and with international reach. We will continue to focus on maintaining a strong and globally competitive sector by attracting new film and high-end TV productions that require our VFX and post-production studios; providing competitive tax incentives; investing in infrastructure; supporting innovation; working with industry on skills development; and promoting independent content. The government will continue to ensure our tax incentives are modern, agile, competitive and attractive.

The government will continue to engage both with sector organisations like the UK Screen Alliance and with individual VFX studios to make sure the UK remains an attractive and competitive place to do business.

Whilst DCMS Sector Economic Estimates provide high level figures for employment within the Creative Industries, DCMS does not hold this information for each creative sub sector. However, BFI’s most recent report estimates that the UK VFX sector directly employed 10,680 FTE in 2021. The same BFI report also estimates the total number of jobs supported by VFX, including indirect employment through the supply chain, was 27,430 FTE in 2021.