Statement
On 9 October 2024, my right honourable friend, the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, made an oral statement in the House of Commons announcing the laying of the necessary statutory instrument, under the made negative procedure, for the independent film tax credit to take effect. I repeated her statement the following day. Both my right honourable friend and I said "We will focus apprenticeships once more on young people to set them up to succeed and to help fill the 25,000 vacancies in the creative sector”. I further said “I repeat that at the moment we have a skills shortage and significant vacancies – a vacancy margin of about 25,000." It has come to our attention that this statistic referenced the number of job vacancies in the ‘arts, entertainment and recreation’ sector. A more accurate statistic specifically for the creative industries is “We will focus apprenticeships once more on young people to set them up to succeed and to help fill the 49,000 vacancies in the creative industries”. My right honourable friend's record has since been corrected.