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

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what steps his Department is taking to introduce Government-backed covid-19 cancellation insurance for the live events sector.

This Government recognises the importance of the UK’s live events sector and has provided significant financial support including an additional £300M to the Culture Recovery Fund. The Culture Recovery Fund as a whole also included £188 million for the devolved administrations via the Barnett formula including £97 million for Scotland.

We are aware of the wider concerns about securing indemnity for live events and we continue to assess all available options to provide further support to the sector within the public health context. We also need to be confident that any investment or intervention would lead to an increase in activity: for instance we understand the constraints imposed by social distancing remain a further barrier for many live events restarting.