Health Protection (Coronavirus, Restrictions) (Obligations of Hospitality Undertakings) (England) Regulations 2020

Lord Mann Excerpts

Friday 9th October 2020 Lords Chamber

[Lord Mann (Non-Afl)]

Some 25 of us could leave the House today and book places on a coach tour for the weekend and travel the country, calling at multiple tourist sites. Several coachloads could book into the same hotel. We can stay and eat in the hotel and, remarkably, if we did so, almost certainly Members of this House would lower the average age of the participants doing precisely that this weekend. Each week, private dinners take place in the Palace of Westminster, yet six of us cannot pay for a private box at a sports venue.

Tomorrow, 500 people could huddle together under the only rain covering at a lower league football match, at a capacity of, say, 50%, yet 5,000 cannot go in a socially distanced way, perfectly safely, to an outdoor rugby league match, where everything is planned in advance within government standards. There needs to be a change of approach between indoors and outdoors. If pensioners can tour in coaches this weekend and it is deemed safe—and it is—sports such as rugby league should be allowed to survive by having a social distancing plan and getting in some revenue.