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

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what steps his Department is taking to prepare the events industry to hold large scale events again, once covid-19 testing at scale becomes available.

We are aware that many in the sector seek clarity on when the events industry will be able to hold larger scale events.

From 2 December, we will return to a regional, tiered approach to COVID-19 restrictions. In tiers 1 and 2, spectator sport and business events can now resume inside and outside with tight capacity limits and social distancing, providing more consistency with indoor performances in theatres and concert halls.

In tier 3, there should be no public attendance at spectator sport or indoor performances and large business events should not be taking place.

The Government will also introduce spectator capacity limits for sports stadia, business events and live performances in tiers where these are permitted. These limits will vary depending on whether the event is held indoors or out. At tier 1 these will be 50% capacity or 4,000 outdoors and 1,000 indoors, whichever is lower and at tier 2 these will be 50% capacity or 2,000 outdoors and 1,000 indoors, whichever is lower.

We continue to engage with stakeholders - including through the Tourism Industry Council and the Events Industry Senior Leaders Panel - to assess how we can best support the sector’s safe reopening.

The business events pilots we carried out in September will ensure that the correct advice and guidance is put in place to help larger events reopen when it is safe to do so.