Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what steps he has taken to support the fairs and showmen industry during the covid-19 outbreak.

My Department has taken a number of steps to support the funfairs industry through Covid-19.

The industry has been able to access support such as the Job Retention Scheme, the Self-Employed Income Support Scheme, the Bounce Back Loans scheme. We have also cut the rate of VAT applied on most tourism and hospitality-related activities, including admission to circuses and fairs, from 20% to 5% until March 2021. Travelling fairgrounds can also apply to the £1.57 billion Culture Recovery Fund.

We recognise that Covid-19 has significantly impacted the culture sector and that these are extremely difficult times for organisations such as travelling funfairs. We have met with representatives of the Showmen’s Guild of Great Britain to assess how we can most effectively support the sector through this period.