Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what guidance his Department plans to issue to businesses in the beauty sector on health and safety standards in relation to the covid-19 outbreak.

My Rt. Hon. Friend the Prime Minister set out a roadmap to get the UK back to work in his speech on 11 May. Hairdressers and other beauty businesses remain closed in this phase because the risk of transmission in these environments is higher due to the indoor environment and closer physical contact. The ambition is to reopen these businesses as part of Step 3 of the roadmap and we will work with the beauty sector ahead of that to ensure that that the guidance supports hairdressers to work safely.

This will add to the guidance already published by the Government which was developed with industry, unions, local government, Public Health England and the Health and Safety Executive to support businesses that have been allowed to open during the pandemic.