DCMS: diversity in TV and film falls

The Department for Culture, Media & Sport’s (DCMS) Creative Industries: Focus on Employment study showed that the proportion of black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) people in the sectors fell 0.2% on 2011 - the last time the research was undertaken.

The total number of BAME individuals working in production industries grew marginally from 20,000 in 2011 to 22,000 last year. At the same time, the number of white people increased by 26,000 to 237,000.

This meant that 8.6% of the workforce across television, film, radio and photography was BAME, below the average of 10.2% for the wider UK economy.

The figures will provide additional firepower to the growing campaign to increase diversity in the television and film sectors. It shows the scale of the task facing the industries, which have gone backwards in reflecting modern Britain over the past two years.

The DCMS study, which draws on figures from the Office for National Statistics, showed that employment across the creative economy increased 8.8% to 2.6m over the two-year period to the end of 2013.

Culture secretary Sajid Javid said: “The UK’s creative industries are a huge success story and powerful force in driving economic growth. These figures demonstrate the sector is punching well above its weight and government is committed to ensuring the right conditions are in place to allow the sector to continue to flourish.”

A version of this article first appeared in Screen’s sister publication Broadcast.