With former member of the Culture, Media & Sport Select Committee Mims Davies shuffled into the Shadow Cabinet of Kemi Badenoch, a Conservative seat emerged at the end of 2024 on the deliberative body, with former member and former Education Secretary Damian Hinds answering the call. Having sat on the Committee previously, and with such extensive Parliamentary experience across a range of departments, I sat down with Damian Hinds to learn what brought him back to the creative industries, and what his priorities are for the Arts & Theatre sectors in his new role.
The Rt. Hon. Damian Hinds MP is the Conservative Member of Parliament for East Hampshire, having served as an MP continuously since 2010. He was first given a ministerial portfolio in 2015 as Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury under Prime Minister David Cameron. Upon Theresa May’s appointment as Prime Minister, he became Minister of State for Employment, before becoming the Secretary of State for Education in 2018, serving until the 2019 General Election. He has also served as Minister for Security and Borders, Minister for Prisons, Parole and Probation, and Minister for Schools variously, under Prime Ministers Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak. He has previously served on the Culture, Media & Sport Select Committee between 2020 and 2021, returning to the Committee following the appointment of Conservative Leader Kemi Badenoch’s Shadow Cabinet. Hinds attended Trinity College, Oxford during his studies, where he also served as President of the Oxford Union in 1990/91.
With his return to the Culture, Media & Sport Select Committee last month, I began by asking Damian Hinds why it was he sought to return to this role specifically, given his primary focus of education. “All Select Committees do important work […] they form an important part of the scrutiny of government departments in Parliament, not just scrutinising what the department and its ministers are doing, but it’s a way to gather the wider debate and commentators in that area […] And with the DCMS Committee, candidly, all of the stuff it covers is really interesting, […] and really, who doesn’t care about culture, media and sport?”.
With such a passion for the creative industries and the Committee itself, I pushed further on what issues Hinds believes are most in need of addressing, with him describing the recurring theme of Artificial Intelligence set to play a huge and contentious role in the future of British creativity. “That would probably be the same answer if you were asking the Business Committee or the Health Committee or what have you, but the issues for DCMS sectors are sometimes the same, but many are different. And as with all other departments, there are opportunities, but also big risks involved for these sectors”.
“The last time I was on the Committee, we did an inquiry about music streaming and that raised some very important questions about who owns the intellectual property […] I think some of the questions with AI are different from that, but there are some parallels as well, and it is very important that people are fairly remunerated, but it’s not just a question of fairness. If you can’t make a living out of creativity, people will stop doing it, and that would be to the detriment of all of us”. However, Hinds also pointed out that a balance needs to be sought to “maximise all of the great things that can come from technology and AI, whilst at the same time always being conscious of the risks […] there is lots of great stuff that can come from AI in the creative sectors”.
But unlike the previous time Hinds sat on the Culture, Media & Sport Select Committee, Conservative representation has fallen, given their standing in the wider House of Commons. How would this affect Conservative advocacy and the promotion of the party’s priorities in this new Parliament? “Select Committees aren’t really that party-political (or shouldn’t be!). Part of the point of Select Committees is that you bring people together from different parties, and of course we have our different traditions and so on, but actually we’re there to do a job together, and it is one of those pleasant aspects of being an MP […] Obviously we have different views, sometimes they aren’t different, sometimes they’re the same, or sometimes the overlaps come in unexpected places […] but when you’re talking about the creative industries, the sport that unites our communities, and getting young people doing exercise and great stuff on telly, and live music, these are not usually party-political matters”.
The creative industries may not be party-political, but their uptake is being increasingly highlighted, with a recent report finding that the number of pupils studying creative subjects at GCSE fell between 2015 & 2023, with performing arts dropping from 20% to 12% uptake. As a former Education Secretary, what does Hinds feel needs to be done to address this?
“Whilst those figures cover GCSE, it’s also important to consider the number of people actually doing those things, as well as technical and vocational qualifications, which for example in music technology, has been quite a big growth area […] But there does need to be, and should be, a cadre of young people also studying these things to a higher degree; to have people studying fine art at higher education and that needs a proportion to have been doing it at A-Level, and so on”.
“There is always a balance because there’s always more subjects. As a minister, you’ll never have been lobbying to remove something from the curriculum, there’s always more things that we all want to do, and it is very difficult to add more without taking something away, that stands to reason. […] I also think that whatever you do at GCSEs or A-Levels or BTECs, having the opportunity to take part in creative activities, which may have nothing to do with an exam but are to do with self-expression […] all play an important part for young people”.
With the rise of Artificial Intelligence, I pushed further on why it is that this is the area of Culture, Media & Sport policy he is most excited for in his new role: “It is the cutting-edge of public policy questions, and there is this big question about the use of creative outputs, whether that’s music, art or literature, in modelling for AI. Without getting all technical about it, there’s this question about opt-in or opt-out […] where all of the different views are actually legitimate, and at some level they are all correct. But ultimately, the government is going to have to make a judgement, and we as the Committee are going to have to come to our own balance, and I think that’s going to be a very interesting line of inquiry.
As Hinds finished his remarks, he also gave advice to any prospective Parliamentarians or public servants, who may be seeking a career in arts advocacy or representing the creative sectors: “My advice, for what it’s worth, would be to take your time. There is no rush, and in life, you know, keep your options open as there is time to do one, two, three, four careers, and politics absolutely doesn’t have to be the first one, even if that is what you’re going to do eventually. And in fact, there are many great advantages to it not being the first one […] Experience from the artistic and creative sectors is a very good thing […] looking at these areas, that’s all very valuable”.
Damian Hinds MP joined the Parliamentary Culture, Media & Sport Select Committee on December 9th 2024. All members of the Committee are available here
