Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what assessment his Department has made of the potential effect of restricting wedding ceremonies to places of places of worship and some public buildings during the covid-19 outbreak from 12 April 2021 on (a) cancellation and postponement rates and (b) jobs throughout the supply chain.

Wedding or civil partnership ceremonies can take place in licensed venues that are not expressly required to close under the COVID-19 Regulations. From Step 2, which will be no earlier than 12 April, ceremonies may also take place in venues which are permitted to open for the purposes of providing unrestricted services. This includes any purpose-built wedding venue where that is its sole purpose, and it is not also a hospitality venue or visitor attraction.

Further information can be found at: www.gov.uk/government/publications/covid-19-guidance-for-small-marriages-and-civil-partnerships/covid-19-guidance-for-small-marriages-and-civil-partnerships.

I meet regularly with the industry-led Weddings Taskforce, established to represent a wide range of interests in the weddings sector in England, to understand the impact of the pandemic on jobs and businesses.