We probably all have our own frustrations with the general election. BOP’s Douglas Lonie does. At the Creative Industries Federation debate, he felt that the consensus around the importance of the creative and cultural industries fell far short of the critical thinking we need in this policy area.

The undoubted reason for the lip service paid by politicians is the impressive Creative Industries Economic Estimates published annually by DCMS: 1 in 12 UK jobs in the creative economy. 5 percent of UK GVA and nearly 9 per cent of service exports coming from the creative industries. But in reality these figures are problematic. Going beyond lip service, to producing new and innovative policy ideas, relies in part on having some robust data about the real contribution of this sector.

Digging into the detail of the estimates reveals some challenges. For example, the Gross Value Added contribution of crafts declined in absolute terms between 1997 and 2013. Over the same period, the growth in the contribution from publishing, as well as film, TV, video, radio and photography, was slower than the economy as a whole. By contrast, IT, software and computer services expanded to be responsible 46% of the GVA attributed to the creative industries by 2013 (up from 32 per cent in 1997). So nearly half of the GVA of the creative industries, it seems, is attributable to a sector not traditionally defined as part of these industries.

There are grounds to query some of these numbers. In respect of crafts, DCMS concede that there are difficulties making estimates about the sector “due to weaknesses in the classifications that official data are based on”. The same concerns in relation to the music industry motivated UK Music to commission the research on music’s economic contribution that I have led in recent years. Similar research has also been undertaken by the Crafts Council. For these industries, improvements to the underlying classification systems would help representative bodies and government better track economic change.

Not all parts of the creative economy are let down by the classification system though, so in the main we need to confront what the data tells us. That is: long-term growth by some celebrated parts of the creative industries (publishing, film, TV, video, radio and photography) has been disappointing, and somewhat masked by the impressive overall performance of the creative industries, inflated by the strength of IT, software and computer services.

As much as only dismal scientists look at the economic contribution of the creative industries in isolation from cultural and social value, grappling with and acting upon the economic details revealed in the data, which do not tell same story of unadulterated success as the headline figures, should be part of the next government going beyond lip service.