Asked by: Adam Jogee (Labour - Newcastle-under-Lyme)
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 (a) strength and (b) success of the creative industries in Newcastle-under-Lyme constituency.
Answered by Chris Bryant - Minister of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
This Government recognises and welcomes the success of the creative industries in Newcastle-under-Lyme, and is committed to supporting our world-leading creative industries, and their growth in regions across the UK.
The Office for National Statistics includes Newcastle-Under-Lyme as part of the Stoke-On-Trent ‘Travel To Work Area,’ and indicates that 3,777 people were employed in the creative industries in 2021, an increase of 5% since 2017.
The second wave of the £50 million Creative Clusters competition will be announced in the coming months, which will provide Newcastle-Under-Lyme, and the surrounding area, the opportunity to further develop themselves as a creative cluster. This would build on many of the strengths already present in the region, including video games, digital production and crafting.
Asked by: Clive Jones (Liberal Democrat - Wokingham)
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 the screen and creative industries in (a) Berkshire and (b) the UK.
Answered by Chris Bryant - Minister of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
Our creative industries showcase the best of our creativity and culture to the world and drive both regional and national growth. They employ over 2 million people, are worth over £124 billion to the UK economy and have seen GVA growth twice that of the national rate. We will ensure that the sector can continue to drive growth, boost opportunities and help people to fulfil their creative potential across the UK, including in Berkshire. Our support includes:
We’re also supporting the next generation of indie films with the introduction of the Independent Film Tax Credit, which will allow eligible films to apply for tax reliefs of 53% on qualifying expenditure up to £15 million, creating jobs and growth.
Opportunities to drive growth exist across the whole of the UK and in places such as Berkshire, which has benefited from the £56 million Creative Industries Clusters programme. This funded the StoryFutures Cluster bringing together creative businesses and universities to provide a research platform to develop cutting edge technologies. We will be launching the next wave of the Clusters programme next year.
Finally, the British Film Institute has committed £34.2 million National Lottery funding over 2023-2026 for education and skills programmes. This includes £8.1 million to develop skills clusters, one of which has been set up in Berkshire, led by Resource Productions, the University of Reading, and Shinfield Studios.
Asked by: Shivani Raja (Conservative - Leicester East)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, whether her Department has had recent discussions with industry stakeholders on increasing investment in the creative industries; and what steps her Department is taking to support new investors.
Answered by Chris Bryant - Minister of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
Yes, ministers and officials have had many such discussions and we are committed to increasing investment in the creative industries from a variety of sources.
One of the ways that the Government incentivises investment in the sector is through the creative industry tax reliefs, which provide generous support for production costs of theatres, orchestras, museums and galleries and film, TV and video games companies. The reliefs delivered £2.2 billion of support to these industries in the financial year 2022-23.
DCMS also works with other government departments and bodies including the Department for Business and Trade and UK Research and Innovation to encourage new investors to consider investing in the creative industries. This includes work through the activity of DCMS’s Create Growth Programme and the Seed Enterprise Investment and Enterprise Investors Schemes, which are available for those looking to invest in start-up and scale-up creative industries businesses, offering tax reliefs to individual investors.
Asked by: Sojan Joseph (Labour - Ashford)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what assessment he has made of the effectiveness of the Online Safety Act 2023 for gaming services.
Answered by Feryal Clark - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The Online Safety Act has been designed to be technology neutral and applies to all services which support user-to-user interactions online, including game services. Where gaming services fall in scope, they will need to take appropriate measures to protect their users against illegal harms and harms to children.
Asked by: Shivani Raja (Conservative - Leicester East)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether there are fiscal incentives for businesses looking to invest in creative industries in the UK; and whether she plans to take steps to encourage such investments.
Answered by James Murray - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
The creative industries play a key role in driving economic growth. The Government is committed to supporting them and will implement a creative industries sector plan as part of the Industrial Strategy, creating good jobs and accelerating growth in film, music, gaming, and other creative sectors.
One of the ways that the Government incentivises investment in the sector is through the creative industry tax reliefs, which provide generous support for production costs of theatres, orchestras, museums and galleries and film, TV and video games companies. The reliefs delivered £2.2 billion of support to these industries in financial year 2022-23.
The government also provides a range of grant support.
Asked by: Shivani Raja (Conservative - Leicester East)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, whether financial support is available for firms looking to invest in the creative industries within the UK.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The Creative Industries Tax Reliefs and Expenditure Credits have been highly effective in attracting investment into the UK creative industries, especially for feature film, high end television (HETV), video games and animation. The British Film Institute reported that inward investment into Film and HETV production in 2023 totalled £3.1 billion, representing 74 per cent of UK production expenditure.
The Seed Enterprise Investment Scheme (SEIS) and the Enterprise Investment Scheme (EIS) are available for those looking to invest in start-up and scale-up creative industries businesses offering tax reliefs to individual investors.
Asked by: Tom Hayes (Labour - Bournemouth East)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if her Department will provide additional support for the provision of AIM level 3 extended diploma in games, animation and visual effects skills in further education colleges.
Answered by Janet Daby - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
This government recognises the importance of the creative industries sector and the need to ensure a skills pipeline into professions in that sector. Whilst the government publicly funds qualifications in a range of subject areas, it is for schools and colleges to determine what provision they deliver to their students based on their individual circumstances and when taking into consideration factors such as learner and employer demand.
The department believes that qualifications must deliver on its two central missions of enhancing and spreading opportunity for everyone and growing the economy. The department will ensure there are a range of high-quality qualifications that provide young people and adults with the skills they need, and which deliver on its missions. It has been previously announced that the department will undertake a focused review of the post-16 qualifications reform and clarify the position by the end of the year. The qualifications that remain will allow the department to unlock opportunity for young people, harness their talents to drive growth and fulfil the government’s missions.
Asked by: Lord Foster of Bath (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask His Majesty's Government, following further breaches of the Advertising Standards Authority codes on publicising the availability of loot boxes by members of the DCMS technical working group on loot boxes, what steps they will take to ensure that the codes and their oversight are strengthened.
Answered by Baroness Twycross - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) and the Committee of Advertising Practice (CAP) are responsible for setting and enforcing the UK Advertising Codes and are independent of the government.
The ASA takes firm action to ban adverts for loot boxes that are in breach of their codes and has published comprehensive guidance for advertisers of in-game purchasing. The ASA is assessing the nature and scale of ads that fail to inform the audience of in-game purchasing, and considering further action through individual investigations or enforcement activity conducted by CAP Compliance teams.
We are committed to ensuring that purchases of loot boxes should not be available to children and young people unless and until they are enabled by a parent or guardian; and that all players should have access to and be aware of spending controls and transparent information to support safe and responsible gaming.
In July 2023, the previous Government agreed to new industry-led guidance produced by a DCMS-convened Technical Working Group (TWG) of video game developers ; a 12 month implementation period ended in July 2024. The TWG is preparing a report on industry implementation of the measures, which we urge all video games companies to adopt in full. We are separately commissioning independent academic research to assess the effectiveness of the new guidance in improving player protections and will consider whether further action is required when this research is complete.
Asked by: Thérèse Coffey (Conservative - Suffolk Coastal)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what steps she is taking to help support the growth of creative industries in (a) Suffolk and (b) Suffolk Coastal constituency.
Answered by Julia Lopez - Shadow Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
The UK Government has a clear plan to grow the creative industries by a further £50 billion and support another 1 million jobs by 2030. This was set out in June 2023 in the Creative Industries Sector Vision, which was accompanied by £77 million of new funding to support the sector’s growth. This is on top of a range of tax reliefs introduced or expanded since 2010 covering film, television, animation, video games, orchestras, theatres and more.
Creative Industries GVA grew at more than twice the rate of UK GVA between 2010 and 2022 (50.3% vs 21.5%), and helped support more than a million new jobs since 2010.
Measures in the Sector Vision include the £28.4 million Create Growth Programme (CGP) to support high-growth creative businesses in twelve English regions outside London to scale up and become investment ready. The CGP is being delivered in twelve local area partnerships, including Suffolk.
It also includes £1 million for the Creative Careers Programme, which raises young people’s awareness of creative careers and pathways by providing specialist advice and information through a range of industry-led engagement. It is delivered in regions around England, including Suffolk.
The Arts Council England Investment Programme is also investing £444 million each year into arts and culture in England. The Arts Council is providing around £5.36 million per year to cultural organisations in Suffolk, of which over £1.6m allocated to cultural organisations in Coastal Suffolk.
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, if she will take steps to help support companies in the gaming industry that use artificial intelligence to innovate.
Answered by Julia Lopez - Shadow Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
The UK Government has a clear plan to grow the creative industries by a further £50 billion and support another 1 million jobs by 2030. This was set out in June 2023 in the Creative Industries Sector Vision, which was accompanied by £77 million of new funding to support the sector’s growth. This is on top of a range of tax reliefs introduced or expanded since 2007 covering film, television, animation, video games, orchestras, theatres and more.
His Majesty’s Government is working across Departments to develop an approach on artificial intelligence and copyright which allows this technology and the creative industries - including video games - to grow in partnership.
The Sector Vision includes an objective to increase public and private investment in creative industries’ innovation, contributing to the UK increasing its research and development (R&D) expenditure to drive R&D-led innovation. In the 2023 Autumn Statement, Her Majesty’s Treasury also announced a DCMS-led review on public investment in R&D spending for the creative industries.
The Sector Vision is supported by £310 million in Government spending, including the following support for AI innovation across the creative industries, including video games:
£76.5 million CoSTAR programme - an infrastructure network for world-class R&D in screen and performance technology. The new national network of five CoSTAR Labs includes the Realtime Lab in Dundee which will bring together local video games development expertise with academic expertise in R&D and AI at Abertay University and the University of Edinburgh.
£50 million Creative Clusters programme - joining up academics with business in the creative sector to drive innovation and research to improve growth.
£30 million Creative Catalyst programme - delivering small scale innovation funding to creative businesses.
In the UK Innovation Strategy the creative industries, including video games, are identified as critical to the government’s ambition to make the UK a global hub for innovation, engaging in innovation at a higher rate than other sectors and more productive than the UK average. Innovate UK has funded £100m through the BridgeAI programme, helping businesses in priority sectors, including the creative industries, to harness the power of AI and unlock their full potential.