Asked by: Abena Oppong-Asare (Labour - Erith and Thamesmead)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what plans he has to support the live music industry during the next six months of covid-19 social restrictions.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
We appreciate the important role that the music industry plays in the UK’s economy, and that the Covid-19 pandemic presents a significant challenge to the sector.
The Chancellor has announced the Winter Economy Plan to protect jobs and support businesses over the coming months, once the existing Self-Employment Income Support Scheme and Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme come to end. From November, the Jobs Support Scheme will provide further support to returning workers, while the extended Self-Employed Income Support Scheme will aid the self-employed who are currently actively trading but are facing reduced demand.
We are also offering businesses who face a drop in demand for their services and possible cash flow issues generous terms for the repayment of deferred taxes and government-backed loans. We will give all businesses that borrowed under the Bounce Back Loan Scheme the option to repay their loan over a period of up to ten years. This will reduce their average monthly repayments on the loan by almost half. We also intend to allow CBILS lenders to extend the term of a loan up to ten years, providing additional flexibility for UK-based SMEs who may otherwise be unable to repay their loans.
In addition, the Secretary of State announced an unprecedented £1.57 billion support package for the cultural sector which will benefit the live music sector by providing support to music venues and many other cultural organisations to stay open and continue operating.
£3.36 million was shared among 136 venues across England who applied for the Emergency Grassroot Music Venues Fund, as part of this support package. This funding aimed to support those grassroots venues to survive the imminent risk of collapse caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
We continue to engage with the sector to discuss the on-going challenges facing the industry.
Asked by: Abena Oppong-Asare (Labour - Erith and Thamesmead)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what estimate he has made of the timescales for permitting the return of live arts performances (a) with and (b) without social distancing restrictions as covid-19 lockdown restrictions are eased.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
The Secretary of State and DCMS are committed to supporting the cultural sector to reopen as soon as it is safe to do so, and ensure appropriate support and guidance is provided.
To that end, DCMS has established the Cultural Renewal Taskforce and the Entertainment and Events working group which will be focusing on ensuring that COVID-19 secure guidelines are developed in line with the phasing ambitions and public health directions, building on the existing guidance and providing intelligence and sector-specific expert input.
The Secretary of State recently announced a five stage roadmap that the Government will work through to get the performing arts sectors back up and running. The first two stages of the plan - rehearsals and training adhering to social distancing, and performances for broadcast only - are already underway in some places, and further decisions on the remainder of the stages will be made in line with expert medical advice and the latest public health guidance.
Asked by: Abena Oppong-Asare (Labour - Erith and Thamesmead)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
What discussions he has had with the Chancellor of the Exchequer on the support available for self-employed people working in the digital, culture, media and sport sectors affected by the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
Across DCMS sectors, over 22% of workers are self employed, making the government's Self-Employment Income Support Scheme a priority for my department. I am pleased that it has been positively received by many of our stakeholders.
We continue to talk with the Treasury to help ensure that the scheme works for our sectors. This is informed by frequent discussions with our stakeholders to understand the extent to which we are reaching those most in need.