Science, Innovation and Technology Committee: Including ‘comedy’ in National strategy.
Minister Ian Murray recently convened an executive briefing with Samantha Niblett MP, Dr Simon Opher MP, and Craic founder, Lu Jackson, focused on securing the future of the UK comedy industry. This followed the London-centric Comedy Business & Growth Roundtable we co-hosted in October with Rachel Blake MP and Howard Dawber OBE, bringing together policymakers and comedy industry leaders to focus on growth, resilience, and long-term sustainability.
One clear, practical opportunity Craic has been pushing for is the consistent recognition of comedy within national strategy. Including 'comedy' (as a word) alongside music and theatre across DCMS reports, funding portals, AI task forces, and related policy frameworks would be a simple but meaningful step—making the sector visible, measurable, and far easier to support through investment and innovation policy.
It was therefore encouraging to see Samantha raise this directly with Prof Sir Ian Chapman, CEO of UK Research and Innovation, at Tuesday’s Science, Innovation and Technology Committee session. We would welcome UKRI leading the way on including 'comedy' as a standard category across future funding portals, investment strategies, and research classifications, so comedy businesses and professionals are not navigating systems that were never designed with them in mind.
Comedy is widely valued as entertainment, but its economic and cultural contribution is still too often overlooked. The sector generates billions in revenue and significant tax receipts, yet reinvestment and strategic support have not kept pace, particularly at a moment when COVID aftershocks and AI are reshaping creative work at speed.
There is real appetite across the industry to collaborate with government on this. With the right recognition and coordination, comedy can move from fragility to shared growth—supporting talent, businesses, and the public alike.
🟠 The comedy industry professionals who attended October’s Business & Growth Roundtable, helped shape the initial priorities shared with government. Initial sector priorities (full post to follow, with contributors tagged):
• Policy & representation gaps (the system change)
• Tax, finance & economic resilience
• Sustaining the talent pipeline & public service media
• Workplace safety & professional standards
• Next steps and the comedy roundtable
Special thanks to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport and Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, and the MP's and teams who make these kinds of meetings possible. Samantha Niblett MP — thanks for the question!
