Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, for what reasons gyms are (a) required to close in the Liverpool City Region and (b) permitted to stay open in Lancashire under the highest level covid-19 restrictions.

Hygiene and social distancing measures are vitally important for reducing the transmission risk of COVID-19. We know that the virus spreads readily in any indoor environment where members of different households and/or support bubbles spend time together, so the transmission risk in indoor settings, such as gyms, remains high.

We recognise the efforts that have been made to reduce risk across a range of venues. As decisions are based on a number of factors, it is possible for variation to exist between different local authority areas.