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 support the reopening of greyhound tracks across the UK as covid-19 restrictions are eased.

The government recognises that the ongoing impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic continue to be extremely challenging for businesses, including greyhound stadia. Greyhound racing has continued behind closed doors since 1 June.

The Events Research Programme (ERP), working closely with local authorities and organisers will undertake studies to get fans and audiences back safely as restrictions are gradually eased.The pilots programme will be used to provide key scientific data and research into how small and large-scale events could be permitted to safely reopen in line with the Roadmap out of lockdown as part of Step 4, commencing no earlier than 21 June.

On 19 November 2020 the Government announced a rescue package worth £300 million to help major spectator sports which have been affected by the pandemic, including a preliminary allocation of £1 million in loans for greyhound racing. In the recent budget a further £300m was announced for the recovery package across all sports.

Greyhound racing has also been eligible to access pan-economy support provided by the government including the business rates holiday for leisure industry businesses, the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme and the Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme.