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

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what proportion of the arts, entertainment and recreation workforce (a) was been eligible for and (b) received support from the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme in each month since the introduction of that scheme.

The Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme has been one of the key ways we have provided support, with the Arts, Entertainment and Recreation (AER) sector receiving £1.974bn of support from the initiative so far (claims made to 31 October). The CJRS has now been further extended to 30 April 2021. From 1 November, the UK Government will pay 80% of employees’ usual wages for the hours not worked, up to a cap of £2,500 per month.

The latest figures published by HMRC show that as at 31 October 2020, there were 660,900 eligible employments and 40,000 eligible employers for CJRS in the arts, entertainment and recreation sector.

As at 31 October, the proportion of the workforce eligible for furlough that were actually furloughed in AER sector was 24%. 45% of eligible employers in the AER sector were using the furlough scheme at the end of October.

As at 30 September, the take up rate of eligible employments was 28% in the AER sector, with 49% of eligible employers in the sector using the scheme.

As at 31 August, 40% of eligible employments were furloughed and 54% of eligible employers were using the scheme in the AER sector.

As at 31 July, 52% of eligible employments in the AER sector were furloughed, with a take up rate of 61% of eligible employers in the sector.