Last month we were alerted to a proposal - Classifying and Measuring the Creative Industries – DCMS Consultation– from the Dept of Culture, Media and Sport which proposes to redefine the way that the size of and the companies engaged in the ‘Creative Industries’ are defined. Basically the proposal is to include parts of, but not all, of what we now consider to be the ICT sector as ‘Creative’. It would effectively split ICT in two.
At the present time, ‘ICT’ – indeed ‘tech’ in general – comes under BIS and they are responsible for many of the programmes that support our sector – UKTI, the STEM Agenda etc. ICT is one homogeneous sector and we have long supported the‘All the wood behind the one arrow’ approach. Indeed, when ‘software’ was for a short time moved to DCMS, the only bit that got any attention was computer games (c1% of ‘software’)
The DCMS proposals are at best misinformed and at worst motivated by the worst kind of political manoeuvring.
Misinformed because the detailed proposals just don’t make sense. For example, Telecomms Directors are being redefined as ‘Creative’ but all the staff that work for them are not. Even more crazy, IT Directors are ‘Creative’, IT programme managers are not but Programmers are ‘creative’. Similar inconsistencies apply to the proposed changes in SIC codes for businesses. Businesses involved in ‘software development’ are to be ‘creative’ but those that run cloud services are not. There are many other examples.
Political manoeuvring because there is much talk that the DCMS might be disbanded. This all stinks of a blatant power ‘land grab’ by the DCMS to bolster the sectors they have responsibility for.
We felt so strongly about this that we have submitted TechMarketView’s own response to the proposals which you can read – Click here.
We understand that organisations like e-skills and Intellect are also against the proposals and will be similarly objecting. Indeed e-skills has written an excellent briefing paper. See e-skills document.
For other background reading see Bryan Glick (Editor Computer Weekly) DCMS land-grab is a threat to IT’s political and economic future
If you feel as strongly as we do that the UK’s ICT sector should be measured and managed as a whole and by one Dept and NOT split in two, then please make sure your views are known. You only have until 12th June to submit a response either by using the DCMS response for in the link above or directly to statsconsultation@culture.gsi.gov.uk.