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

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, if he will take steps to provide additional financial support to music venues in response to the open letter of June 2020 to the Government from the UK’s Grassroots Music Venues organisation.

We appreciate that the Covid-19 pandemic presents a significant challenge to the grassroots music sector, which is why Government has put in place unprecedented support for business and workers to protect them against the current economic emergency. These include:

• The Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme;

• The Self-Employed Income Support Scheme;

• The Bounceback Loan Scheme;

• Expanding eligibility for the business rates reliefs.

We continue to speak with HM Treasury colleagues to ensure that the full spectrum of government support reaches the UK's world-leading music industry. Our recovery work for this sector is being delivered via the ministerially-chaired Events and Entertainment Working Group, which was established to support the Secretary of State’s Cultural Renewal Taskforce. The Music Venue Trust is an active and valued member of the Working Group, the focus of which is to produce sector-led guidance for the safe reopening of a range of creative industries sectors, including live music venues and music recording and rehearsal studios.