This Week's Government Updates: Face coverings at work and supporting the culture sector
Planning update on cultural venues and holiday parks: The government has published a written ministerial statement to support the culture and tourism sectors by both preventing the loss of theatres, concert halls and live music performance venues, and encouraging local planning authorities to exercise their discretion in relation to planning conditions for caravan and holiday parks. Find out more here.
UK Internal Market Consultation: The UK government is consulting on new measures to protect internal trade within the UK when powers return from the EU in January 2021. Measures will protect the UK’s economy by preventing new burdens on cross-UK business and provide certainty to support coronavirus recovery. The proposals aim to ensure that devolution can continue to work for everyone; that all devolved policy areas stay devolved, while maintaining certainty for business by ensuring that rules and standards across the UK are mutually recognised, so that trade is as easy for business as possible. A 4-week consultation opened on 16 July, sourcing views from businesses across all 4 nations of the UK. The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy are consulting on the options set out in the white paper. Please respond by close of play on 13 August. Find the paper here.
Face coverings at work: Guidance on face covering, their role in reducing the transmission of coronavirus, the settings in which they are recommended, and how they should be safely used and stored is available here. It is not compulsory for shop or supermarket staff to wear face coverings in England, although employers should consider recommending their use where appropriate and where other mitigations are not in place. There is no universal face coverings guidance for workplaces because of the variety of work environments in different industries. Employers should continue to follow COVID-19 secure guidelines to reduce the proximity and duration of contact between employees.
Government scheme to help universities and colleges in financial difficulties: Universities in England facing severe financial difficulties as a result of the coronavirus will now be able to apply for further Government support. The scheme will review providers’ circumstances and assess the case for restructuring support, including last resort financial support, through repayable loans. Find out more here.
Brexit Negociation Updates
UK-EEA EFTA states future relationship negotiations process: This page summarises the process for formal negotiations between the UK government and Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway following the UK’s exit from the EU.
Joint Ministerial Committee (EU Negotiations) communiqué: 16 July 2020: The twenty-fourth Joint Ministerial Committee (EU Negotiations) met via video-conference. The meeting was chaired by the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster.
List of customs agents and fast parcel operators from 1 January 2021: The list of customs agents has been updated with 27 new requests, and the list of fast parcel operators with 9 new entries.
UK Transition communications resources: UK Transition campaign tools and resources to support engagement with local communities and businesses across all four nations.