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

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what steps he is taking to support sporting venues that are unable to open solely for the purposes of elite sport as a result of financial inviability.

The Government’s approach to reopening venues and events has been based on safety and wider public health concerns. We continue to work closely with sport governing bodies and venues across the country to fully assess what support is needed during this challenging time.

As a result of this work, on 19 November 2020 we announced a £300 million Sports Winter Survival Package which aims to protect their immediate futures over the winter period. Decisions on allocations are being undertaken by an Independent Board, whilst Sport England are responsible for administering the fund.

This support is in addition to the multi-billion pound package of business support from government that has enabled many sports clubs and leisure businesses to survive, including the furlough scheme and business interruption loan scheme. Sports have accessed many hundreds of millions of pounds of support through this.

The Government remains committed to engaging across the sector to maintain a complete picture of the financial impact of Covid-19 to ensure sports venues survive this difficult period wherever possible.