Research and analysis

DCMS Official Statistics Workplan 2025/26

Updated 3 April 2025

1.  Introduction

This page outlines the high level priorities and plans for DCMS official statistics in 2025/26. These are based on our current understanding of existing and rapidly emerging user needs. We always value feedback from users. You can contact the DCMS statistics team on evidence@dcms.gov.uk.

A number of DCMS’s Public Bodies also produce official statistics. This includes Arts Council England, British Film Institute, Gambling Commission, Historic England, Sport England and VisitEngland. You can find a calendar of all official statistics planned by DCMS and our Public Bodies on the Research and statistics release calendar.

2. Our statistics

We are committed to continue to provide robust, high quality and relevant official statistics during a time of new and fast-emerging analytical demands. Our statistics will support the evidence base for the government’s missions and DCMS’ priorities, while also meeting the needs of a range of external users, guided by the principles set out in the Code of Practice for Statistics. The rest of the work plan sets out more detail about our planned portfolio of DCMS statistics for 2025/26.

2.1 Economic estimates

Our Economic Estimates provide statistics on the contribution of DCMS sectors to the economy. These help us understand the number and size of businesses in the DCMS sectors, the number and characteristics of those employed in DCMS sectors and how much they earn, how DCMS sectors contribute to UK trade, and the Gross Value Added to the UK economy. 

In 2024/25, we expanded our range of Economic Estimates: 

• We published new Research and Development (R&D) estimates for DCMS sectors, working closely with the ONS. 
• We commissioned the Office for National Statistics (ONS) to publish Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) estimates for DCMS-related sectors. 
• We worked with ONS colleagues to improve the timeliness of tourism data through publishing a provisional UK Tourism Satellite Account indicator, alongside the ONS UK Tourism Satellite Account (TSA), reducing the lag of estimates of the economic contribution of tourism by one year. 
• We published updated productivity statistics measured by output per hour, including a time series from 2019 for the first time, as well as improvements to our methodology to be more consistent with ONS productivity measures. 
• We published ad-hoc estimates, including statistics for the Arts Market.
• We have worked on assessing methodologies for producing heritage sector economic estimates, based on a broader definition which more accurately reflects the heritage sector. We have taken forward work to develop a robust methodology and produce GVA and employment estimates for the heritage sector.

In 2025/26, our plans include:

• Continuing to review the content, including ensuring we continue to capture areas of DCMS interest well, and the frequency of our Economic Estimates in line with user needs. This includes considering user needs in relation to statistics about the creative industries, which have been identified as one of the eight growth-driving sectors in the industrial strategy, and working with the ONS to explore further geographical breakdowns and developments to our portfolio of Economic Estimates. Across our full portfolio, we will engage with users about any planned changes. 
• Continuing to work with the ONS on tourism estimates through the delivery of the TSA and provisional TSA indicator, as well as exploring other more timely tourism indicators. 
• Continuing to develop the methodology for producing robust heritage sector estimates and explore how to incorporate these into our portfolio of Economic Estimates. 

In the coming year, we plan to publish the following Economic Estimates for DCMS sectors:

Gross Value Added (GVA)

• Annual GVA - our most robust estimate
• Monthly GVA - a faster, though less accurate estimate, published quarterly
• Regional GVA

Trade

• Annual Trade in Goods 
• Annual Trade in Services 
• Annual Trade in Tourism

Employment and earnings

• Annual employment - an expanded earnings and employment publication based on Annual Population Survey (APS) data
• Quarterly employment statistics - a faster ‘tables only’ release based on the same data source as the annual publication
• Annual ‘snapshot’ earnings release based on the Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (ASHE)
• Implementation of updated creative occupations in employment statistics based on SOC2020 codes, including estimates of creative occupations within and outside the creative industries and breakdowns by occupational code.

Business demography

• Annual business demographics: the number and characteristics of businesses in DCMS sectors.

Productivity

• Annual output per hour, including exploring the feasibility of producing regional estimates.

Research and Development (R&D)

• Annual R&D expenditure, including exploring the feasibility of producing additional breakdowns (such as by region).

Satellite Accounts

Satellite accounts can provide estimates of the economic contribution of sectors of the economy which are not observable in the traditional system of UK national accounts because they do not directly correspond to SIC economic activity. Work in this area includes:

• Tourism Satellite Account: we will continue to work with the Office for National Statistics to ensure the publication of estimates of employment and gross value added by the tourism sector, including a more timely provisional UK Tourism Satellite Account indicator. 
• Sport Satellite Account: we will continue work on robustly measuring the broader economic contribution of the sport sector and incorporate the latest Sports Satellite Account estimates into our portfolio of Economic Estimates.

2.2 Participation Survey and Community Life Survey

Our Participation Survey provides statistics on adult engagement with DCMS sectors, including cultural sectors, major events and live sport. These statistics provide important evidence about how and why adults in England do or do not engage, contributing to the evidence base for a number of policy areas and enabling us to monitor the accessibility of our sectors. 

Our Community Life Survey is a key evidence source for understanding more about community engagement, volunteering, social cohesion, wellbeing and loneliness amongst adults (aged 16+) throughout England.

In 2024, we published data for each of these surveys at local authority level for the first time - the Participation Survey in partnership with Arts Council England (ACE), and the Community Life Survey in partnership with the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG). Publications for data collected in 23/24 and 24/25 are summarised in the following table:

	Participation Survey	Community Life Survey
23/24 data collection	Data collected at local authority level in partnership with ACE. Annual data published in July 2024, in addition to quarterly releases	Data collected at local authority level in partnership with MHCLG over two quarters (Oct-Dec, Jan-Mar). Annual data published in December 2024, in addition to two quarterly releases.
24/25 data collection	Data collected at ITL2 (county) level. Annual data will be published in Summer 2025, in addition to quarterly releases	Data collected at local authority level in partnership with MHCLG over two quarters (Oct-Dec, Jan-Mar). Annual data to be published in Winter 2025, in addition to two quarterly releases.

DCMS ran and responded to a public consultation about the surveys in 2024. We invited views from all interested stakeholders in their current use of the Participation Survey and Community Life Survey and priorities for future, ensuring that meeting user needs and achieving value for money remains at the forefront of any survey design. 

From October 2025, we are intending to run a joint survey in practice, while keeping the content for each of the Participation Survey and Community Life Survey broadly separate. This means that all respondents will be asked a series of questions relating predominantly to their demographics, before being routed to answer questions about either the Participation Survey or the Community Life Survey. We expect data for the Participation Survey will be available at ITL2 (county) level. We expect data for the Community Life Survey will be available at local authority level, in partnership with MHCLG. We expect data from these surveys to be published at the same time.

We are intending to collect Participation Survey data for April to September 2025 separately, to enable the time series to be continued without a break.

2.3 DCMS-funded cultural institutions

We publish statistics about DCMS-funded cultural institutions. These help us understand how DCMS-funded cultural institutions generate their income, how sponsored museums and galleries are performing against their annual performance indicators and how many visits there are to sponsored museums and galleries.

In the year ahead, we expect to publish:

• Monthly visitor figures for sponsored museums and galleries (published quarterly).
• Annual performance indicators for sponsored museums and galleries
• Total income of DCMS-funded cultural organisations

2.4 Reported Treasure Finds

Statistics on Reported Treasure Finds present the number of finds of treasure and portable antiquities reported and recorded through the Portable Antiquities Scheme. We release an account because of the importance of treasure finds in understanding and interpreting history on a national and local level. The scheme is an intrinsic part of cultural protection, preserving important and significant finds for public access.

We published our annual report in November 2024, and plan to publish the next set of statistics in November 2025.

2.5 Employer Skills Survey

We published skills shortages and skills gaps for the DCMS sectors and sub-sectors in May 2024. In February 2025, we published a further analysis of skills shortages and skills gaps in the creative industries, with a particular focus on the nature and impacts of skills issues in the creative industries, as well as on the profile of skills gaps and shortages by occupation. 

Fieldwork for the Employer Skills Survey 2024 was carried out between May and December 2024, and results will be published by the Department for Education in 2025. In 2025/26, we plan to update our publication with the latest results, and consider publishing a historic time series.

2.6 Youth Participation Survey

The Youth Participation Pilot Survey is a pilot survey of young people aged 10-19 in England. It explores young people’s participation in a range of after school activities from sports clubs and classes, arts, music groups and clubs, youth clubs, uniformed youth and any other clubs. The survey findings were published in November 2024.

We are considering options for any future surveys of children and young people.

2.7 Supplementary tables

Over the last year, we have published a wide range of supplementary tables. We will continue to do this for transparency, including where users request particular cuts of data. If you require a breakdown of our statistics that we have not already published, please contact us on evidence@dcms.gov.uk.