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

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment he has made of the findings of the Events Research Programme.

Our Phase I events successfully collected a large amount of data on a combination of testing, and non-pharmaceutical interventions (actions that people can take to mitigate the spread of coronavirus) across the nine pilot events.

Findings from the first phase of the Events Research Programme were published on 25 June, and show that:

• Every event, both indoor and outdoor, carries levels of transmission risk.

• Large unstructured gatherings indoors where there is significant mixing of people in close proximity typically pose a higher risk.

• Mitigation options include: communications, crowd and audience management strategies, face coverings, ventilation, testing, restrictions on food and drink, social distancing and capacity caps.

Findings from ERP pilots continue to be shared with the Government for consideration as part of broader policy making. Key findings from Phases II and III will be published in due course.