the closures are going to cover the exam periods, has the uk government had discussions with the likes of universities uk about scoring exams? these decisions must be gci’oss 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. well, 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 who needs to access cash to pay their rent, their salaries or supplies will be able to access a government—backed 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. hear, hear. 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 for 12 months and if they have a rateable value of less than £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 people's 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. will the chancellor — 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 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 four under 25s have enough savings to cover one month of income. under 25s are so incredibly vulnerable and we need to look at specific measures to help young people. only 42% of the bottom percent 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. 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 risk of contagion, and help save the economy. the urgency of the government is like deliberations on this, there 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 banks, so today we must be prepared to bail out household budgets at this time of economic crisis. i was here on tuesday night when the chancellor made his statement and there can be no doubt that 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 constituents who works in a home for adults with learning disabilities, her son's school will be closed from monday and he has respiratory problems so she is uncertain whether she wants to send him to school, her employer 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, and 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 as 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's 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 does misrepresent it considerably. john glen. now, let's take a quick look at some other news from the westminster week. a long—awaited review into lessons learnt from the windrush scandal concluded britons who came from caribbean 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 make it quarrel with any member. but i do want to make crystal clear that my viewers, the ministers that have a duty to report first to this house. where major policy changes are announced. but there was better news for the chancellor in the 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, many in england, 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 unnecessary contact. 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 prime minister's questions and continuing my duty as your 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 willjudges. judges on the actions that we take now. 0ur response must be bold and it must be decisive. the market cannot deliver what is needed, collective public action led by government can protect our people and our society. to make his right to draw attention to this crisis. we are asking the public to do quite extraordinary things. and hold 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 of six parties across this house i have never supported

a temporary universal basic income tab 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 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 deposition, he is quite right, throughout this crisis, we take steps to support workers and the suggestions that he makes are 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 it is a sensible figure, the winter fuel allowance about the elderly get some help. so the elderly get some help. i think he will introduce some kind of vat for traders. i hope that the country will bounce back quickly,

but i say to him, 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 that. 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 minister 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 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 peoples homes? mr speaker, it is very important to note that we have significant resilience in our food supply chain and that food manufacturing is used to coping with increasing the demand every year during christmas. there is no shortage of food, the challenge 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. and other residential settings have been let down by the wholesale food supplies and are told by supermarkets that they're being treated just like any of the consumer. two chickens doesn't go along way if you only have 136 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, the demand has plummeted. george eustice. so how prepared are the emergency services if and when the number of covid—19 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.

realistically, what is your biggest fear in the next few weeks? with your biggest challenges 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 complex. it is really complex and it is multidimensional, not just policing but across other agencies. if i had to hang it on one, in the past, policing would help other, and 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 that 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 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 that may not get the support they need and 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 has 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 panicked by for a few days when the food and everything is going to run out. when the shots are restocked, b.

—— when the shops are restocked, they stop. if you think that is an important message. but i am seeing more ofjuristic behaviour by our communities and 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 re—assure 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. i would not want the public or anyone else to think that the police have these totalitarian powers and can work with impunity... 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 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.

holding onto the dry unsettled theme and for much of next week. high pressure is sitting over scandinavia, bringing these easter south—easterly winds although the wind direction should change so something milder from the south. this weather fund will be to fly in the ointment for the north—west corner of the country. quite a lot of rain and introducing more cloud at times. for most of us, because of high pressure, it will be dry with plenty of sunshine. still a quite a chill in the next few days. cold and frosty. still in the cold air mass for sunday with winds coming into the east or south—east. maybe not quite as strong as what we had on saturday so that should be a little bit more manageable. also starting with grey cloud across the north—east of england into eastern scotland. it should tend to push northwards and clear away so i think for many of us, we should see sunshine into the afternoon, particularly northern ireland and scotland. quite a feature coming in from the east or south—east but not

as strong on saturday. more sunshine around and slightly lighter winds. it averages 11 or 12 degrees cooler along southern and eastern coasts. the clear skies with the cool air mass, temperatures will fall. weatherford pushing into the north—west of scotland was appear, temperatures around six or seven degrees for stornoway elsewhere, a widespread and quite a hard frost in one or two places. be surprised if you wake up for scenes like this with a touch of frost around on monday morning but with blue skies and plenty of sunshine. despite the cold start, it will be sunny to start the new working week up and down the country but more cloud for the west of scotland and perhaps western and northern ireland and outbreaks of rain pushing into the hebrides and for the northern isles. elsewhere, temperatures reaching highs of 11 and 12 degrees. tuesday, doing it all again, another cold start that blight —— right and plenty of sunshine put up a bit more cloud for scotland and northern ireland. —— bright. also, we change

ourairsourcea ireland. —— bright. also, we change our air source a little bit coming up our air source a little bit coming up from the south so a bit milder across the country with highs of 13 and maybe 1a degrees. a bit more cloud for scotland and northern ireland.