Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what assessment his Department has made of the risk of covid-19 spreading in places of worship where hygiene and social distancing measures are followed.
We are very grateful to our faith communities for all their efforts to ensure their places of worship are as Covid-secure as possible. However, the evidence from the scientific community, and from SAGE is that the rate of infection continues to rise and we need to reduce the level of interaction and the number of gatherings that take place. The closure of places of worship for communal prayer is one such decision.
These restrictions have not been introduced lightly. We recognise that religious practice is of fundamental importance to millions of people which is why we are enabling individual prayer in places of worship for those religions who practice in this way.
The regulations now in force will expire on 2 December, at which point we hope to be able to ease restrictions.