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

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what assessment his Department has made of the potential effect of new covid-19 restrictions on businesses in the (a) retail, (b) tourism and (c) hospitality sectors.

The Government moved to Plan B in England as it was necessary to control the spread of transmission of the new threat posed by the Omicron variant and the potential impact on businesses. In order to support all businesses across the UK economy throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, we have provided businesses with an unprecedented support package of £400 billion, including grants, loans, business rates relief, VAT cuts and the job retention scheme. This includes a total of over £26bn in business grants. The Additional Restrictions Grant (ARG) fund is open until March 2022.

In order to support businesses through this next phase, the ‘Working Safely’ guidance will continue to provide advice on sensible precautions employers can take to manage risk and support their staff and customers. In other sectors, such as hospitality, the guidance says that businesses are exempt from enforcing customers to wear masks and this assessment has been made from a practical point of view given the nature of hospitality visits is to eat and drink.