The UK government-backed body for tackling bullying and harassment in the creative industries has confirmed a 2024 live date.
The Creative Industries Independent Standards Authority will take on cases from next year, supported by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS). It will initially cover the film, music, television and theatre industries.
”CIISA has one clear purpose, to make the creative industries a safer working environment for our talented colleagues who make the film, TV, music and theatre that we all love and enjoy,” said interim CIISA CEO Jen Smith.
”There is overwhelming evidence for the need for CIISA and bringing collective accountability to our sector, and the more quickly others join us, the more quickly we will have an independent body in place to support the whole ecosystem of the creative industries.”
Those from the UK industry backing the creation of the body include Times Up UK chair Heather Rabbatts, producers Barbara Broccoli and David Puttnam, and actors Stephen Graham, Keira Knightley, Ruth Wilson, Naomie Harris, Sule Rimi and Varada Sethu.
It is also backed by major UK broadcasters including the BBC, ITV and Channel 4. Times Up UK has spearheaded the campaign for an independent standards body across the last five years, including through the creation of a creative industries round table set up by Creative UK and the UK government.
Describing the CIISA as “the next step”, Wilson said, “I can’t tell you how many times in the last 20 years of my career in this industry that I would have loved to have an objective outside body that I could go to for advice, that I could go to for mediation and I could go to, in the very extreme circumstances, that you might need some outside body to hold people accountable for the bad behaviour or bad practices that sometimes happen on our sets.”
Puttnam described the CIISA as “a significant and essential intervention” towards a safe workplace for everyone, while Graham noted the “pyramid structure within our industry” that “needs addressing.”
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