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

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, whether he plans to use Event Research Programmes (ERP) to avoid complete closures of (a) venues and (b) events in the future.

The Events Research Programme (ERP) pilot events ran across a range of settings, venues, and activities, with findings informing the return of events in a structured, scientifically and ethically robust manner.

The pilot events gathered evidence associated with different settings, including approaches to managing and mitigating transmission risk. They explored how different approaches to social distancing, ventilation, and test-on-entry protocols could ease opening, and maximise participation.

The ERP has provided important evidence on the variety of settings and differences within venues such as ventilation systems, the organisation of events, venue design, and attendee behaviour.

This has provided an understanding of how different settings and mitigations impact specific risk factors. It also provided significant evidence of the operational, logistical and commercial implications for events of differing types and the heterogeneity found in events settings.

The findings from the Events Research Programme continue to inform government policy-making.