Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee Publishes Report on the Impact of COVID-19 on the Arts

The Digital, Culture, Media and Sport committee published a report on the impact of COVID-19 on the arts, The Stage reports.

The report calls the health crisis "the biggest threat to the UK's cultural infrastructure in a generation" and says that the government's support package took too long to come, resulting in redundancies that may have been avoided.

"We welcome the government's commitment to provide £1.57 billion in funding for our cultural and heritage sectors; however, whether it is enough to safeguard the cultural sector will ultimately depend on how long institutions remain closed or subject to social distancing, and we are concerned that freelancers and small companies will continue to fall through the gaps of government support," the report states. "It is also regrettable that it took so long for the package to be announced, as the uncertainty inevitably led to closures and redundancies in the cultural sector that might otherwise have been avoided."

The report recommends introducing flexible versions of the furlough scheme and self-employment income support scheme for the creative industries until work and pay returns to normal levels.

The committee also calls on the government to "address the urgent need for the UK's cultural industries to be covered by adequate insurance."

Read more on The Stage.