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

To ask His Majesty's Government how the Department of Culture, Media and Sport captures information about visual artists’ overall income when they derive their main income from sources other than their artistic endeavours.

The Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) publishes official statistics on earnings in the sectors and occupations for which it has policy responsibility. These statistics focus on how much is earned by an individual in a particular job, rather than providing information on an individuals’ total earnings.

We publish the following estimates of earnings:

1. Based on the Office for National Statistics (ONS)’s Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings, we publish median annual and weekly earnings for any job in a DCMS sector. This would include anyone working in, for example, the cultural subsector of ‘Arts’ and the creative industries subsector ‘Music, performing and visual arts’. Earnings of visual artists who are self-employed or who work in industries outside these statistics would not be captured in these earnings estimates.

2. Based on ONS’s Annual Population Survey, we publish hourly gross pay estimates for any self-identified main job in a DCMS sector. Using the same data source, we also publish hourly gross pay estimates for any self-identified main job in a DCMS creative occupation. This would include, for example, Artists (SOC 3411) and Graphic Designers (SOC 3421).

We recently asked users of our statistics for feedback on these estimates and are considering our plans for these publications in the future.