Neil Coyle – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Neil Coyle on 2016-06-06.

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, for what reasons the food and drink industry does not meet his Department’s criteria for inclusion on its list of creative industries.

Mr Edward Vaizey

The Government fully recognises the importance of the food and drinks sector to our economy, and appreciates that there is a creative element to work in this sector. The definition of the Creative Industries since 2013 has been based on a Creative Intensity approach, which measures the proportion of jobs within an industry that are classified as creative. The proportion of these jobs in the ‘food and drink’ industry was below the 30 per cent threshold set in 2013, and was therefore not included in the Creative Industries Economic Estimates.

Earlier this year, this Department carried out a consultation on our Economic Estimates for the Creative Industries, which included asking whether we should review the sectors included within the Creative Industries based on the existing Creative Intensity approach. We published our response to this consultation on 9 June, which stated that we will continue to review the Creative Intensities on an on-going basis to ensure they remain relevant. The Standard Occupational Classifications (SOC) which underpin this work are currently being reviewed, however, and we will wait for the outcome of that review before deciding whether and when to make any changes to the occupations which contribute to the Creative Industries.