this is bbc news, the headlines: in the uk, the government has announced unprecedented measures to tackle the economic impact of the coronavirus, with the state paying 80% of the wages of all those not able

to work for the next three months. the prime minister has announced that restaurants and pubs must close. the us is closing its borders to all but essential travel from saturday. the move has been agreed with canada and mexico as part of efforts to stop the spread of the coronavirus. elsewhere, stock markets in new york have closed down sharply, ending their worst week in a decade. in italy, authorities have announced that the country's death toll from the virus has jumped by 627 in a single day. they're reported to be about to close public parks and limit the areas in which people can take exercise. now on bbc news, the week in parliament.

hello and welcome to a week in parliament dominated by coronavirus. as cases increase and the death total rises, the education secretary closes down schools. after schools shut their gates on friday afternoon, they will remain closed until further notice. the chancellor unveils a package of measures to help businesses survive but angry mps reckon £350 billion won't help the right people fast enough. this is urgent and we really, really must have action now. why is it taking so long? and the police tell mps about the public response to the crisis. actually, i am seeing more altruistic behaviour by our communities than the opposite. coronavirus has entirely dominated the westminster week. on monday, the prime minister held the first of his daily televised news conferences to update the public and answer

questions from journalists. he announced that everyone in the uk should avoid unnecessary social contact and travel. he advised working from home where possible and promised to increase testing for the virus. in a commons statement, the health secretary said there'd be an emergency coronavirus bill. that if you or anyone in your home has a high temperature or a new or continuous cough, then you should stay at home for 14 days. today, we are advising people against all the necessary contact with others and all the necessary travel. ——unnecessary. we need people to start working from home if they possibly can, we should steer clear of pubs, clubs, cinemas and restaurants. advice he said that was particularly important for the over 70s and pregnant women. and he said those with the most severe health conditions would need to be shielded for the next 12 weeks.

the measures i've outlined are unprecedented in peacetime. we will fight this virus with everything we've got. we are in a war against an invisible killer. the biggest challenge to the public health and social distancing measures will not be boredom and fatigue, it will be finances and affordability. the uk is now facing an exponential rise and i welcome the uk government decreasing all nonessential contact, as i think it is critical to slow down and limit the spread of theirs. ——this. many of my constituents live in severely overcrowded accommodation or in single hostel rooms. there is a looming public health crisis in the short term and a looming long—term mental health crisis because of the conditions they will have to self—isolate in. is the advice to healthy over 70s who do not have an existing long—term condition, that they should be part of the new shielding policy

that is happening at the weekend? or is that shielding policy just for over 70s with an existing health condition? on that last point, no, the shielding policy is only for those with existing health conditions, and those who we are going to ask to participate in shielding from next week will receive a contact from the nhs and we will publish the list of conditions that we consider necessary for shielding. matt hancock. in his press conference on monday, borisjohnson had resisted the idea of shutting schools, but in a fast—moving world, the education secretary told mps on wednesday that would now happen. i want to provide parents, students and staff with the certainty they need. after schools shut their gates on friday afternoon, they will remain closed until further notice. this will be for all children,

except to those of key workers and where children who are most vulnerable. i can confirm that we will not go ahead with assessments or exams and that we will not be publishing performance tables for this academic year. we will work with the sector and ofcom to ensure children get the qualifications they need. he says he will give schools flexibility, but with millions of children in poverty and many families now facing even worse, can he guarantee that free school meals will be made available to all of those eligible? and will he take steps to extend that to breakfast and over the school holidays, too? the closures are going to cover the exam periods — has the uk government

had discussions with universities uk about alternative ways of scoring to exams. these decisions must be across government and cross sector and i hope discussions will continue. parents may not be key workers, but they will be key workers in their homes because they are the ones who are paying the mortgage, the rent and the bills, so if parents cannot go out to work because their children cannot go to school, who will pay their salaries? the education secretary accepted that his decision raised wider issues. the massive impact of coronavirus has seen stock markets plunge and the pound fall. the bank of england has cut interest rates not once but twice, and the chancellor too stepped in. speaking at one of the now daily downing street briefings, rishi sunak vowed that the government would do whatever it takes to support the economy. and so barely a week after his budget, he set out £350 billion of emergency measures for firms — the equivalent of 15% of national

income, known as gdp. that means any business that needs to access cash to pay their rent, salaries or supplies will be able to access a government backed loan attractive terms. ——loan on attractive terms. and if demand is greater than the initial £330 billion i am making available today, i will go further and provide as much capacity as required. i said whatever it takes, and i mean it. there would also be £10,000 cash grants for the smallest businesses and the business rate holiday announced in the budget would be extended. that means every single shop, pub, theatre, music venue, restaurant, and any other business in the hospitality and retail sector will pay no business rates whatsoever for 12 months and if they have a rateable value

of less then £51,000, they will now get a cash grant as well. the chancellor said there'd be help for individuals who'd seen their incomes collapse, announcing a three—month mortgage holiday for those who needed it, and he promised to do more. i will work with trade unions and businesses to urgently develop new forms of employment support to help protect peoples jobs and incomes through this period. labour recognised the threat from the virus, but thought the chancellor could have gone further. there is nothing in a statement to protect renters. and it affects us all. all our constituents. will the chancellor bring forward urgently now measures to protect renters, preventive actions, and enable rent holidays for those ——prevent evictions and enable rent holidays for those people unable to meet their costs? the government later announced emergency legislation to protect private renters from eviction. the snp focussed on the impact on young people. young people under 25,

only one in 2a under 25 have enough ——only one in 4 under 25s have enough savings to cover one month of income. under 25s are incredibly vulnerable and we need to look at specific measures to help young people. only 42% of the bottom income earners have enough to cover a month. people will not be able to manage this crisis on the basis of the money they have in the bank because a lot of people have no money in the bank. alison thewliss. but as the week went along, there were increasing and angry calls for the government to do more to help workers facing pay cuts or redundancy. a former business secretary said firms watching their incomes collapse had no choice but to lay off staff. he offered a solution. all employers have an account with hmrc to pay tax. the monthly wage bill is known to hmrc. instead of firms paying paye to the government, that flow should now be reversed

with the nation paying the wages of people for the next few weeks if and only if they continue to employ themselves. ——their staff. separate arrangements will need to be made for the self—employed but at a stroke, this would save people jobs, save businesses, and put an immediate end to the risk of contagion, and help save the economy. the urgency of the government's deliberations on this, is absolutely, it is at the top of everything we are doing. ministers are working flat out 24/7 to look at all the options. labour said it was more than six weeks since the first cases of coronavirus were reported in the uk. for over a month, we have known about the risk coronavirus poses to the economy and to work, and yet the government has announced no plan to protectjobs and wages. the mp behind the universal credit benefit system said there were levers that could be pulled to make it more easily available more quickly. they can be done today,

they can be delivered within days by a department that already has the ability to do that. during the financial crisis of 2008, no expense was spared at the bank so today we must be prepared to bail out household budgets at this time of economic crisis. i was here on tuesday when the chancellor made his statement, and there can be no doubt what the attitude of the house was at the time, that the package of loans and measures announced by the chancellor would not be sufficient, and here we are two days later and the minister is telling us that there simply hasn't been time to consider these things. this is urgent and we really, really must have action now. why is it taking so long? it is a question of making sure when these are announced, they are going to be effective to deal and can be delivered efficiently. a constituent who works in a home for adults with learning

disabilities, her son's school will be closed from monday. her son has respiratory problems so she is uncertain whether she wants to send him to school. her employers say she won't be paid and isn't even entitled to statutory sick pay if she can't come into work due to childcare. what should she do, and where is the clear advice and guidance on, where is the helpline for the thousands of other constituents of mine and every single member in this house, where can they get answers? because they are so worried. what is hard to understand is how after six and a half weeks when we knew we might reach this stage, that the government has got no idea what it is going to do to pay the wages of those people who are being laid off. there is a whole tranche of people who are going to be laid off now. there will be more industries that lay people off next week and the week after. if the government doesn't act now, it won't be able to retrieve the situation.

how have we got to this point, where the government hasn't got a clue? i accept the frustration of the honourable gentleman but i have to say that to characterise the government's situation as not having a clue i think doesn't misrepresent it considerably. ——does misrepresent it considerably. john glenn. now let's take a quick look at some other news from the westinster week. a long—awaited review into lessons learnt from the windrush scandal concluded britons who came from carribean countries in the 50s and 60s suffered from a culture of ignorance and thoughtlessness in matters of race, and said some ministers still do not accept the full extent of the injustice. the report comes after some of those who came to the uk were wrongly told they were in britain illegally. we must all take responsibility for the failings that led to the unimaginable suffering of this generation. and let me be clear, mr speaker, there is nothing that i can say today which will undo the pain, the suffering, and the misery

inflicted upon the windrush generation. what i can do is say that on behalf of this and successive governments, i am truly sorry. my mother was a member of the windrush generation so i know one of the aspects of the windrush generation was they really believed they were british. they had no reason not to believe they were british when they came here with their passports, uk and colonies, and for the windrush generation, let me assure the home secretary of this, it isn't necessarily the money or the loss or the inconvenience, or even the tragedy of being deported, it is the insult to people who always believed they were british. the speaker, sir lindsay hoyle, gave the chancellor a ticking off in the commons for announcing his

plans to help businesses deal with coronavirus at a downing street news conference before mps, breaking a long—standing parliamentary convention. i do not want to pick a quarrel with any member. but i do want to make crystal clear that my view is, that ministers that have a duty to report first to this house when major policy changes are announced. but there was better news for the chancellor, rishi sunak, this week. his budget — remember that? it's normally a political highlight of the year and the source of some serious parliamentary argy—bargy, it passed the commons without a formal division as mps stayed away from the crowded voting lobbies. if the news has you reaching for the corkscrew — beware, mps held a debate on the dangers of excessive drinking. across the uk, more than 80 people die every day because of alcohol—related causes.

alcohol is not the leading risk factorfor death, ill health and disability, and is associated with around 40% of violent crime. over in the lords, the speaker told peers he was heeding the government's advice for the over 70s to avoid unecessary contact. that some of us are notjust over 70, but over 80. so, my lords, reluctantly, will be withdrawing from the house for the time being, thanks to modern technology, i will still be in close contact with my office, deciding private notice questions and continuing my duty as lord speaker. now to the weekly round of pmqs, but it was a session with a difference. in line with the coronavirus social distancing advice not all mps attended, and those who did sat far apart on the green benches. jeremy corbyn called on the government to boost sick pay and help those who rent their homes.

generations to come will look back on this moment and they willjudge us. judge us on the actions that we take now. our response must be bold and it must be decisive. the market cannot deliver what is needed, only collective public action led by government can protect our people and our society. he's right to draw attention to this crisis. we are asking the public to do quite extraordinary things and shoulder extraordinary burdens. but he said the more people worked together and followed the scientific advice... the better our chances of relieving the burden on the nhs, the more lives we will save, the more suffering we will avoid and the quicker we will get through it. members from six parties across this house have never supported a temporary universal basic income to help everyone. with the prime minister stand up today and give a commitment

to provide people with the security of a universal basic income? do not underestimate, mr speaker, the value to people, the measures that we have already announced that we will support. business and keep jobs going, make sure those businesses continuing existence. that will be the first step but as i've said repeatedly now to the right honourable leader of opposition, he is quite right, throughout this crisis, we take steps to support workers and the suggestions that he makes are one of course one of many such suggestions. where is the testing for medics? why are we waiting so long for mass testing and why are social distancing measures merely just suggestions? prime minister, it is right that we have all put party loyalty aside to work together during this time of national crisis. but we must scale up the response. without good leadership, people in this country will start to panic.

a labour mp urged the prime minister to look at the crisis through the eyes of his south wales constituents. if i am honest, i do not want to be partisan, but it does feel as if we are a bit of an afterthought. so i really beg the prime minister to look through the eyes of them, because i think you will see that is a sensible figure, the winter fuel allowance about the elderly get some help. i think he will introduce some kind of vat holiday for sole traders. i know he hopes and i hope that the whole country will bounce back after this, but after the floods in the poverty that we have historically suffered, communities like mine will find it phenomenally difficult to bounce

back if he does not take this kind of action now. they have been clear that the best solution for this is a vaccine, but the chief scientific adviser has said that could be as much as a year away. he has also suggested that until that vaccine is available, it may be difficult to ease restrictions successfully. does my right honourable friend agree with that analysis? and if so, what is the sensible exit strategy look like? the prime minsiter said the government's aim was to depress the peak of the epidemic and get through it as fast as possible, though he didn't give a timescale for that. the environment secretary has told mps that despite the empty shelves in some supermarkets, there's no shortage of food. major stores have started imposing limits on how many of each item people can buy in their shops and online, in an attempt to stop panic—buying. there's also to be greater co—ordination between supermarkets. the environment secretary told mps the government had relaxed the rules so that more food could be delivered more frequently.

what specifically is he doing to ensure the supply of food to the supermarket shelves and from the supermarket shelves to people's homes? mr speaker, it's very important to note that we have significant resilience in our food supply chain in that food manufacturing are used to coping with increasing the demand every year, during christmas. there's no shortage of food, the challenge is that we have had is getting food to shelves and times where people have been purchasing more. that is what we have taken steps, including setting aside delivery curfews so they can run around the clock, relaxing driver hours to ensure the drivers' deliveries can take place more frequently and we are discussing other support that we can deliver locally to get through to those who are self—isolating. homes and other residential settings have been let down by the wholesale

food suppliers are told by supermarkets that they're being treated just like any of the consumer. two chickens doesn't go along way if you have so many residents to feed. can the prime minister look these settings? i'm happy to look into the issue that he raised, but also noting that there has been an increase in demand on the retail shops, notably in supermarkets, there has been a sharp fall in demand in the service trades, restaurants and pubs and so forth, find demand for their services has plummeted. george eustice. so how prepared are the emergency services if and when the number of covid—i9 cases increases? and do the police have the powers — and the equipment — they need? mps on the home affairs committee have been trying to find out. what realistically, what is your biggest fear in the next few weeks? where would your biggest challenges potentially come from? i am not sure i could put it on one.

this is so fast—moving with so many different moving pieces, every day brings a new decision which brings new issues to think about. i think the biggest challenge is it's complex. it's really, really complex and it's multidimensional, not just policing but across other agencies. if i had to hang it on one, whereas in the past, policing would help other agencies in isolated cases in a particular issue or location. the scale of this and the fact that it affects every agency is the single greatest challenge. it is obvious to everybody that the nhs is going to be very stretched and it is perhaps looking outside looking of normal policing response to help them, we can look at working with the voluntary sector, the military and others to give that additional support. that may apply across a range of different functions, but at the moment it is the nhs

that we are looking to make sure we are supporting, because they're going to be on the front lines. the mps moved on to ask about the police role if things get worse. obviously, there is a focus on vulnerable people who may not get the support they need from elsewhere. are you comfortable you can maintain a level of service that they need and the level of support they need? i think, actually, you touch in a very interesting point. there's been a lot of conversations in the media about fear of disorder in fear of looting and things like that. and we have seen some panic buying, but when you look at italy and other places, they panick buy for a few days when the food and everything is going to run out. when the shots are restocked, they stop panic buying. and i think that is an important message.

but i am seeing more altruistic behaviour by our communities than i'm seeing the opposite. and we have a great resource of people who want to volunteer and move forward in a positive way in the opposite. and with the police about to acquire new emergency powers, he tried to reassure people they'd be used in the right way. the new legislation that is being looked at, we have been involved in and discussed some of the new powers that have been given to us. we cannot see a problem with them, they are not designed to be something that police can then use on the street recklessly, they are designed to support public health england, they are designed as part of a medical issue, not a general policing issue. and i would not want the public or anyone else to think suddenly the police have these totalitarian powers and can lock up anybody just because they cough. the majority of cases, that is never going to be a problem

because people are going to respond. deputy chief constable paul netherton. and that's it from me for now, but dojoin us on bbc parliament on monday night at 11 when westminster returns and mps and peers will look at emergency legislation to deal with the effects of the coronavirus. but for now from me, goodbye. hello there. there was a little bit more in the way of sunshine to go around on friday and it really turned out to be quite a glorious day across many areas. it could be quite a cloudy start of the day, especially around the fife

area. it's cold with a touch of frost around and even if you don't see the frost, it's a cold day because we have brisk winds with us once again it was quite a a bit of sunshine but across western areas on saturday, some high and medium level cloud, so bright rather than sunny conditions of the likes of northern ireland, perhaps because of south—west england, too. and will have the strong winds making you feel cold, particularly around the western h ills of feel cold, particularly around the western hills of wales and south—west england, too. the ease goes a little bit cooler, seven degrees in aberdeen but in glasgow we are seeing highs of ii. this high pressure stays with us into next week, most of us will stay fine and dry with more sunshine.

this is bbc news. welcome if you're watching here in the uk, on pbs in america or around the globe. i'm simon pusey. our top stories: empty streets from new york to california, but president trump says he doesn't expect to impose a national lockdown in the us. you go out to the midwest, you go to other locations and they are watching on tv but they don't have the same problems. a new way of life in the uk as borisjohnson orders pubs and restaurants to close to try to prevent the spread of the disease. italy moves to tighten its lockdown rules further as more than 600 people with coronavirus die in a single day. # will meet again, don't know when, don't know