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

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what criteria her Department plans to use to assess whether Parkrun events would be able to continue in the event that further covid-19 restrictions are introduced in response to increases in covid-19 cases.

Sports and physical activity are incredibly important for our physical and mental health and all generations and communities should be able to enjoy the health, wellbeing, social and other benefits of being active. This includes ParkRun which the government supported the safe return of between March and June 2021.

We knew the coming months would be challenging, which is why the government set out our Autumn and Winter plan earlier this year. However, the data does not currently show Plan B is necessary. Plan B does not include proposals to prevent physical activity.

Vaccines will continue to be our first line of defence and our focus remains on delivering boosters, vaccinating 12-15 year olds, mass testing to identify and isolate positive cases, and developing new treatments through our Antiviral Taskforce. The Government will continue to support and work with local authorities and local areas directly to reduce the spread and minimise the impact of COVID-19.