Written evidence from Creative Industries Independent Standards Authority [MiM0043]

I am writing to you in my capacity as Founder and Interim Chair of CIISA, the Creative Industries Independent Standards Authority.

My colleague, CIISA’s interim CEO Jen Smith was pleased to give oral evidence to the Committee on 19th April, setting out why CIISA is a much needed intervention for the music industry and the creative sectors as a whole. As you will be aware, CIISA has received significant support from leading bodies across the music sector and crucially, a groundswell of support from freelancers, who are the life blood of our industry and most deeply affected by the scale and seriousness of harmful that are currently at large, which have no doubt shocked members of the Committee.

The lead body for Theatre, SOLT and UK Theatre, announced their support on behalf on the theatre sector in January. UK Music announced their in principle support for CIISA in March 2023. Prior to that, CIISA has been funded in our development by each of the UK Broadcasters, the BBC, C4, ITV, Viacom and Sky as well as garnering significant in principle support from across the screen sectors more generally, BFI, BAFTA, BECTU, The Production Guild, Directors UK, The Casting Guild, The Personal Mangers Association and The British Film Commission, to name but a few.

CIISA will offer pro-active and preventative solutions alongside our capacity to investigate the most serious harmful behaviours. Currently there is a deep void with a lack of due process, natural justice and evidence based decision making. There is a serious and significant gap for support and advice for freelance creative professionals. Serial perpetrators of harm can act with impunity over many years, hiding in plain sight without any single point of accountability that can give full visibility of their behaviours making it difficult to investigate and address. Our talented musicians and other creative industry professionals often are unclear where to report concerns to for fear victimisation if they raise any concerns as they lack in many cases a safe place to do so. CIISA will also record anonymous reporting.

This has significant personal implications for individuals, which concern us the most, but also for the creative industries at large, with respect to attracting and retaining skilled professionals and the inclusivity of the sector.  CIISA has a pivotal role to play in creating a safe environment for creative industry professionals to work within as well as safeguarding the talent pipeline and protecting the reputation of the creative industries as an employer.

CIISA as a new independent body will give clear advice on how to create better workplace culture across the creative industries, to create capability to tackle and prevent these challenging issues, to triage concerns to the right place and investigate when the most serious behaviours of harm are reported.

CIISA will also carefully track data and trends, offering insight to the creative industries but also being able to demonstrate how it is meeting its long term aims of improving and professionalising cultural norms of behaviour. In tandem advocating for important strides forward on achieving inclusivity, such as advocating for the Black Lives in Music Anti Racism Code. CIISA will work in closely in partnership with unions, support lines, the criminal justice system and statutory provisions within the law and not duplicate existing routes of resolution, it is misrepresentation of CIISA to suggest otherwise.

CIISA has been developed as a structural response to deeply rooted structural issues of poor behaviours that have undermined the workplace culture within the Creative Industries for many years. The troubling backdrop of the issues surrounding the CBI with failure to investigate being a key criticism, sadly bringing these issues into even sharper focus.

We are heartened by the engagement and support we have had from the main bodies and leading figures from across music sector. As you will see from the quotes of support for CIISA listed below.

“We want the music industry to be a positive, inclusive and welcoming place for everyone, and are determined to do whatever it takes to stamp out bullying and harassment wherever it exists. The establishment of the Creative Industries Independent Standards Authority is very welcome. It has a valuable role to play in helping protect those working in the creative sector and in supporting organisations to make their working environments as safe and inclusive as possible. We look forward to continuing working with our partners in the creative sector to further develop some of the great work that is already under way in the music industry to tackle all forms of bullying and harassment.  The work of the new authority could be particularly valuable for the thousands of freelancers who account for around 70% of the music industry workforce.”  
- Jamie Njoku-Goodwin UK Music Chief Executive

“The establishment of CIISA is a sign of hope that creative industry workers, and particularly freelancers, will be better protected from abuse and harassment in the future. At the Musicians' Union, we have received hundreds of reports of harassment and abuse from workers across the music industry and we know that meaningful justice is rarely delivered by employers and engagers directly. Worse than that, the career impact is generally felt by the complainant rather than the perpetrator. We hope CIISA will act as a deterrent, carry out authoritative investigations and give freelancers a better chance of just outcomes."
- Naomi Pohl, General Secretary Musician’s Union

“Black Lives in Music welcomes the Creative Industries Independent Standards Authority (CIISA).  It is a much needed organisation which can provide the accountability Black, Asian and ethnically diverse music industry workers are hoping for. With hundreds of cases of bullying, harassment and racial discrimination encountered by people working in the music industry it is important that those affected have a place to go to where they can be heard and supported. Receive advice, mediation and the possibility of having their complaint investigated by experts who truly care.  The fact that there is currently no other service that provides any level of accountability and consequence for perpetrators of these issues highlights the importance of CIISA's existence. The potential for CIISA to help thousands of people working in the music industry, and to leave a lasting legacy of prevention, is significant. We all want a safe music industry where everyone can thrive, CIISA can help make that happen”.
- Charisse Beaumont, Chief Executive, Black Lives in Music

“In March 2022, Help Musicians’ launched a new bullying and harassment helpline which is available to anyone working in the music industry who needs advice or support.  The vast majority of those calling are working as freelancers and are seeking advice on how to navigate bullying. As well as a lack of HR departments for freelancers, the music industry is close-knit and many fear losing work if they raise issues. Sadly, the helpline has proven that more support is needed and as such we welcome the creation of the Creative Industries Independent Standards Authority to strengthen support in this area; both to act as a deterrent for unacceptable behaviour and to shine a light on where significant problems occur to deliver change.”
- Sarah Woods, Interim CEO of Help Musicians
 

"The community of the electronic music industry would benefit immensely from the work of CIISA, this industry is made up of many independent creators and businesses often working and socialising outside of normal working hours and premises, meaning sadly the lines of professionalism are often blurred and crossed.  CIISA has the ability to promote best practice in working conditions in a non-traditional environment and hold the larger corporations that often act as gatekeepers to account through a fair and evidence based process rather than the court of public opinion and hopefully leading to better working conditions for artists, creators, and behind the scenes staff in the electronic music scene, we lend our support unconditionally to CIISA to hopefully provide fair and equitable working conditions for all"
- Finlay Johnson CEO, Association for Electronic Music. 
 

“It is important that everyone is protected from bullying and harassment in the workplace – regardless of their role, their employment status or background. The BPI is supporting the ongoing development CIISA and welcomes its role in creating a valuable additional resource across the creative industries, particularly for freelancers, and in addition to the individual measures our members already have in place. We look forward to engaging in further discussions as CIISA enters its next stage of development.”
- Sophie Jones, Chief Strategy Officer and Interim Chief Executive BPI

“Britain's Cultural Industries are the envy of the world, but our Sector's internal culture can be much less enviable. Through CIISA, Britain would set the highest global standards for the creative workspace, balancing asymmetry of power and, in turn, cultivating confidence and investment in the UK as the safest place to work creatively. Music, especially, finds itself at a historical and cultural watershed, one where "Sex, Drugs, and Rock 'n' Roll’ (and all its exploitative connotations) is not a tagline anyone wants. Music's story must not be its fate: but wherever people become the product, those people may need protection. Music welcomes CIISA and the much needed accountability it would bring”.
- Crispin Hunt, Artist, Songwriter & Producer, PRS Writer Director, director and former chair at The Ivor’s Academy.

“The live music sector in the UK is made up of a diverse range of actors and organisations.  At LIVE, and in particular through our LIVE Workforce group, we bring that coalition together to cooperate on initiatives that will allow our industry to be as safe and inclusive as possible.  An industry that draws on a huge pool of freelance talent and will routinely work in atypical ways and places.  In that spirit, we have welcomed the opportunity to work with CIISA, identify the specific needs of our sector and help shape its future priorities and operations.  CIISA has the potential to be both preventative and proactive while developing consistency across our sector and the wider creative industries.  As such, we welcome its work to date and its proposals in principle.  LIVE looks forward to working with CIISA going forward, not least in promoting and publicising CIISA and its work”.
- Jon Collins CEO LIVE

The CIISA team are preparing more detailed proposals being available for consultation in June and we will keep the Select Committee abreast of our progress, but we believe that it is absolutely necessary to put in place a deliberately different intervention, to deal with the structural issues at play, otherwise the required scale of change will simply not be fast or effective enough.

May 2023