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

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what the evidential basis was used by his Department when determining the timing for when spectators will be permitted to watch grassroots sports under Step 3 of the Government’s roadmap for the easing of covid-19 restrictions.

Sports and physical activity are crucial for our mental and physical health. That’s why we made sure that people could exercise throughout the national restrictions and why we ensured that grassroots and children’s sport was at the front of the queue when easing those restrictions.

On Monday 22 February, the Prime Minister announced a roadmap out of the current lockdown in England. The government has introduced a step approach to the return of outdoor and indoor sport areas across England. Each full step of the roadmap is informed by the latest available science and data and has been five weeks apart in order to provide time to assess the data and provide one week’s notice to businesses and individuals.

Spectators must adhere to legal gathering limits at Step 3. Outdoors, spectators can gather in groups of up to 30. Indoors, unless an exemption applies, spectators may only gather in groups of up to 6 people, or as a group of two households. A group made up of 2 households can include more than 6 people, but only where all members of the group are from the same 2 households (and each household can include an existing support bubble, if eligible).