this is bbc news, i'm clive myrie. the headlines... the government is to announce new measures within the hour, giving financial support to the self—employed and freelancers, who've lost millions, because of the coronavirus outbreak. i immediately went from earning to not earning, whereas people i know that are employed still are still getting their salary. as nhs staff say they need more protective equipment, the army helps with the distribution, of vital medical supplies. downing street says the uk has become the largest contributor to the international coalition to find a coronavirus vaccine after donating £210 million in new aid funding. leaders of the 620, the grouping of the world's largest economies, have pledged to inject five trillion dollars into the global economy, to try to offset

the impact of the pandemic. the number of dead in spain passes 4,000 as the country's lockdown is extended for at least another two weeks. in america there's a record number of unemployed, as more than three million people claim benefits. nearly 70,000 people in the us, have now been infected. good afternoon and we are waiting for the chancellor to unveil a package of emergency measures. the chancellor, rishi sunak, is preparing to unveil a package of emergency measures for self employed people, many of whose

income has dried up because of the economic shutdown caused by coronavirus. the press conference is due within the hour, so stay with us for that. there are more than 5 million self—employed people in the uk, though there are suggestions that not all of them will be eligible for the help. last week, the chancellor promised to cover up to 80% of the wages of employees to stop them being laid off. this afternoon, leaders of the 620 industrialised nations have agreed to inject 5 trillion dollars into the global economy to counter the impact of coronavirus. here, in the health service, it's been warned that 30,000 ventilators could be needed within just a few weeks. the nhs presently has about 8,000. six people have died from coronavirus in wales, bringing the total there to 28. in scotland another three people have died as a result of the virus, taking the number now to 25. and a further three people died in northern ireland, bringing its total to 10. and here, we are all being encouraged to stand on our doorstep

at 8 o'clock this evening and join in a round of applause to say thank you to all the healthcare staff working throughout this pandemic. 0urfirst report, about the chancellor's latest measures, comes from our economics correspondent andy verity. the country's 5 million self—employed people have never known anything like this. the government orders a shutdown and their income plummets, in many cases to zero. nicky, a nail technician, has enough money in the bank to get her through the next month but then she will run out. i immediately went from earning to not earning, whereas people i know who are employed still are getting their salaries. thomas wescott is a self—employed plasterer, but yesterday his work dried up. it's a very worrying time at the moment due to customers cancelling, not being able to get materials for the jobs we do have, and it's also very unclear whether we should be carrying on working or not, and no money coming in either.

charlie knight makes costumes for primetime tv shows, an industry stripped bare by the antivirus measures. it's terrifying really, because as an industry we're not just costume designers and make up artists, we are carpenters, we are riggers, we are electricians, we are painters, we are medics. every possible profession you could think of is within our industry. cabbies know work comes and goes. for some, this is their fourth recession. but they say it's by far the worst. apprehensive, especially when the work has dried up on the streets, the hotels, the restaurants, the bars. there's just nothing out there at the moment and cab drivers are having to rank up near supermarkets because they are the only places where custom can be had. millions of self—employed people are seeing a drop in income the like of which most of them can't remember in their entire working lives.

it's estimated that they've lost £781 a month on average. rishi sunak has promised to help firms and their employees, paying 80% of wage bills that firms can't afford. the self—employed want the same. the treasury has been keen to avoid giving money to people who don't need it, but many are by no means wealthy. people who are taxi drivers, who are hairdressers, cleaners or builders, they haven't got any money coming in, so speed is going to be important. i think it needs to be a scheme which is as generous to the self—employed as the chancellor was rightly to employees. support for the incomes of self—employed people, even if it's temporary, will land the government with a giant bill — billions, perhaps tens of billions. the longer the shutdown goes on, the more the national debt will grow. andy verity, bbc news. 0ur political correspondent helen catt is at westminster. what can we expect from rishi sunak

on all of this? well, he is under pressure to come up with something thatis pressure to come up with something that is as generous as what was promised to people who are employed through companies. of course, that was guaranteeing to pay 80% of their wages, it was announced six days ago. at the time he said self—employed people would be able to defer vat bills and tax bills and would have access to universal credit. he is under a lot of pressure to come up with something that will not be seen to be treating self—employed people differently. a lot of self—employed people have already seen their incomes drop off massively in the last few days. research from the institute for fiscal studies suggests self—employed people are more likely to be in those sectors that face restrictions on closures, people like hairdressers. it estimates a million people work on those at risk sectors. there has been pressure for that. the shadow chancellor, john mcdonnell, said self—employed people we re mcdonnell, said self—employed people were more likely to be among the

working poor as well, and he has criticised the delay in getting something in place for them. the government has said there are logistical difficulties and complexity in coming up with a scheme that is targeted, deliverable and fare for self—employed workers. they talk about things like the fact earnings are declared retrospectively and it will be working on older data. if you work for a company you are paid through the pay as you earn scheme and the government has your bank details, which is not necessarily the case for people who are self—employed. it has listed those logistical issues. government officials have warned that whatever is an ounce, it could ta ke that whatever is an ounce, it could take time to be put in place because of the complexity. some suggestion that because these people are self employed there may be a lower cap of around about £1700, as opposed to those who have salaries, where the lower cut would be £2500. are we

likely to see that discrepancy? that has been the speculation in some of the newspapers that that might be what the government goes for. we do not have any official line yet what might be in that statement, so we will be finding out at the same time. but there is pressure for him not to be seen to be treating self—employed people differently. if it isa self—employed people differently. if it is a much lower cap, he will be under a lot of pressure to explain why the government has said that. helen, thank you for that. mr sunak set out plans for 80% wage subsidies for staff kept on by employers last week and has been facing mounting calls for similar measures to help those who work for themselves. there are five million people in the uk who are self employed, and they account for just over 15% of the labour market. more than 900,000 people, almost one in five of self employed workers, are in the construction industry. let's speak to our economics correspondent andy verity, who is in our business unit.

andy, those who are self—employed, over 5 million people, it is something like £300 million to the uk economy. it is a sector the government simply could not ignore. no, and self—employed people are the ones who can give the answer to a lot of our troubles right now. we have idle capacity, workers who are sitting around doing not much when so much needs doing, like delivering supermarket goods to self isolating people. supporting the nhs on a volu nta ry people. supporting the nhs on a voluntary basis. what self—employed people are saying is, we can be useful to you, we can help out, we can do voluntary staff, if you protect our incomes in the same way that you protected the incomes of employed people with the announcement they made last friday. but the complication in working out how much relief those who are self—employed or freelancers might get has been the fact that the money is intermittent, it is difficult to work out exactly how much you are

earning because it varies from month to month. what do you think the calculation is that the government will use? is it past tax receipts from those who are self—employed? is it their bank statements? you have a mechanism in place already, the self—assessment system, whereby whoever is self—employed has to file a tax return and they have bank accounts. that would be the mechanism to put money into the bank accounts. how much money depends on how much they have been earning, but thatis how much they have been earning, but that is tricky. a lot of self—employed people are accused of artificially lowering their incomes to pay less tax. it is quite likely to pay less tax. it is quite likely to reflect less than their income is in any case. self—employed people can offset expenses against tax which you don't do if you are an employee. it is much more vague. you could also argue that a lot of the people who are self—employed are less in need. for example, high earning legal partners in law firms,

or may be the spouse of a high earner who is doing it for pin money. but equally most of the self—employed are pretty low earners, they are cleaners, the sort of people we really need in this crisis. they are the sort of people who are uniquely insecure in their income because of the government shutdown. the labour party today suggested they are essentially the bulk of the working poor in this country. but in denmark and in norway they have generous schemes, replacing up to 80% of reason earnings for the self—employed and freelancers. we know rishi sunak has made it clear that if you are a salaried worker it will be up to 80% as well. will he be able to get away with not giving that kind of assurance to the self—employed today? there is pressure for it to be the same deal that is offered to employers and employees. that deal is offered because the government wa nts to is offered because the government wants to prevent mass unemployment. the deal is we will pay 80% of your wage bill if you cannot afford to.

the government hopes not every business around the country will draw down on that. one of the reasons they set aside a quarter of £1 trillion on a contingency fund recently is probably that cost. if you add that 5 million self—employed to that it is a bit of a nightmare if you are paying 80% of those wages as well. they could argue self—employed people accept a different deal. when you enter self—employment you might have a gross income that has fewer deductions against it, for example lower national insurance contributions, but that is regarded by self—employed people as making up for the fact they don't get sick pay or holiday pay. there are trade—offs and the government might argue that self—employed people accept they do not get quite a good deal from the tax payer as employed people. but a lot of self—employed people will be saying it is just as bad for us, you have to do the same. rank you very

much. rank you very much. so, what do the self—employed hope mr sunak will say in his press conference a little later? i am joined now by andy chamberlain who is the director of policy for the association of independent professionals and the self—employed. hejoins me via webcam from walton—on—thames. thank you for being with us. first of all, what do you want to hear from rishi sunak today? we have been hearing for the last two weeks from self—employed people all over the country who are desperately worried. they have seen their income fall off the edge of a cliff. we are looking for a reassuring announcement today from the chancellor that will let people sleep a bit more soundly at night. we are looking for something akin to what he did for the employees last week, where he offered to protect 80% of their income. so, it has got to be as good as for salaried workers? it is as simple as that? i think that is what we are looking for. the self—employed don't come to the

government with their hands out. they are self—sufficient people, but these are unprecedented times. we have seen an unprecedented package for businesses and employees and we are looking for parity with that. for businesses and employees and we are looking for parity with thatm your role as director of lizzie at the association, you have been working with the government to try to come up with some kind of mitigation package in dealing with the economic fallout of the coronavirus outbreak. has the government been listening to you and your entreaties in terms of the kind of measures that you are expecting today? yes, we will have to wait and see what the package is. but, yes, we have been working with the treasury. it has been difficult to devise a scheme that targets those who need the help most. what we have been saying to the government is, let's not make the perfect the enemy of the good. let's get the money to the people who need it and if it goes elsewhere as well, we can think

about it afterwards. there is no suggestion of this cash could end up in the pockets of freelance footballers or celebrities who are doing rather well? yes, and i think the government is rightly concerned about that. we want to target this at the people who need it the most and it is difficult to do that because of the way the self—employed system operates. what we need to do asa system operates. what we need to do as a priority is get the money to the people who need it and if there is some going elsewhere, perhaps we can think about crying that back later. you have talked about the incomes of the self employed falling off a cliff as a result of the shutdown, what kind of stories are your hearing —— are you hearing concerning your members? the self—employed work across every sector you could imagine and we have heard from people as diverse as artists, sports writers, football writers, there is no football and they have nothing to write about, they have nothing to write about, they are self—employed their income

has gone overnight. people who work in theatres, the creative industries, and it working on a project and they had six months work ahead of them, it has been cancelled or indefinitely postponed. in every sense, you can imagine people who we re sense, you can imagine people who were expecting income because of this terrible coronavirus crisis have had that income snatched away from them. it is interesting because all this makes one realisejust from them. it is interesting because all this makes one realise just how large the self—employed sector is to our economy, something like £300 billion every single year. and the uk's unemployment figures have been the envy of many across europe precisely because people have got up and started their own businesses. that's right. there has been a big rise, quite a marked rise in the number of self employment since the 2008 crash and actually a bit before that as well. and this is a structural change to our labour market, what lots of people want to go self—employed and we have the

technology to do that. and one of the benefits has been this remarkably low unemployment rate which of course the government is very grateful to have and it has kept our economy ticking along at times where it might otherwise not have been doing so well. the self—employed are the engine of our economy and by our calculations, they calculate 305 billion to the economy each year and they are the innovators who enable the companies that work with them to be more flexible and more innovative. so we do need to look after them and if we can protect them now, they will be there when we need them most as we emerge from this recession. this is one for you, the construction industry, a big part of our economy and obviously a lot of those workers are self—employed or freelancers, should that sector stay open in the middle of this pandemic? so one of the reasons that we have been so keen for the chancellor to make an announcement as soon as possible is announcement as soon as possible is a lot of self—employed people are faced with a choice, do i listen to the government advice and stay at

home and not work and not earn money, or do i end money while i still can because i don't know how much longer that will last? we would like to see people able to put their health first and the health of eve ryo ne health first and the health of everyone else around them and the nhs of course, so we hope today the chancellor will announce something that not just chancellor will announce something that notjust construction workers, but those as well because that was a big story, that they might think, i ama big story, that they might think, i am a self—employed construction worker, but i know i have income protection coming so i won't risk it and go to work today if i think that is best for my health and the health of those around me. we will see what the chancellor can pull out of the bag in the next few minutes, andy chamberlain, director of policy at the association of independent professionals, it is good to talk to you, thank you. thanks. the peak of demand for intensive care beds is expected to come in the next three weeks. hospital bosses in london, where a third of the country's cases have been diagnosed, say they're already struggling with the high number

of critically ill patients, likening the situation to a "continuous tsunami". staff sickness rates of up to 50% in some hospitals and a shortage of ventilators are putting huge strain on the system. lauren moss reports. the race is on to get vital protective equipment out to nhs staff fighting a battle against an invisible enemy. boxes of masks, gloves and goggles are being delivered in their thousands but, still, many medics and nurses say they're going without, ahead of what could be a tsunami of coronavirus cases in the coming weeks. doctors are now looking after some of their own colleagues who are on ventilators. we're aware, internationally, that large numbers of health care workers have themselves fallen ill by being infected. so, the one thing the nhs must do is avoid infection by giving us the protection. that is avoidable. scotland's chief medical officer says the distribution system became clogged up after huge orders were placed, but that supply shouldn't be

a problem there next week. and according to the government, 13 million face masks have gone out in the last few days. we entirely understand how important it is that you get the kit you need and feel safe and are safe in doing this amazing work that you are doing. we are ramping up deliveries of ppe. we've brought the army in to help with what is a huge logistics exercise. and it's not just equipment for staff. ventilators are also a must for patients, who could become very unwell and need help breathing. the nhs hasjust over 8,000 at the minute, but estimates 30,000 may be needed. please... look at me and listen. if you get coronavirus and you have to go into the icu, that means you're going to struggle to breathe. you keep going with a ventilator. so, please, please listen

to all the advice of the government. one of those answering the government's call to build more ventilators is dyson. if the blueprint is approved, 10,000 could be constructed at its base in wiltshire — an aircraft hangar, which was used in world war ii. as people stay at home, hope is also turning to an antibody test which could detect if someone has already had the virus. 3.5 million of those have been ordered for nhs staff and critical workers, but there's a word of caution that we shouldn't expect to see the test on shop shelves yet. everybody wants this, so there is a global shortage and that's a bottleneck for us but the next priority is to get critical workers back to work, or to say to them, you have got this. so, we definitely would like that, not to fight the disease, but to support the nhs. more people are being tested for the virus every day. over 13,000 have been carried out since monday, but doctors say more must be done. it seems that we're trying

to make reasons why the uk is a special case where, last time i checked, we're the same human beings as in every other country. but if we don't also test and trace, then how are we going to avoid, when we open the doors and go back outside there's a risk that it will rise again just as it has? more than half a million people have now volunteered to be an nhs responder, to help the most vulnerable with things like food and medicine deliveries, or even a phone call. i feel deeply humbled at the strength of our nation and the gift of time that everybody is willing to give of themselves. their humanity, their compassion, their talent, their skill. it's a true gift to give. and following in the footsteps of other countries, tonight, everyone around the uk is being invited to clap for carers, as a thank you to those facing the brunt of the crisis. lauren moss, bbc news.

another three people have died as a result of coronavirus in scotland, taking the number now to 25. the first minister said the scottish government has brought an extra 1.5 million face masks into use from the nhs stockpile, after they were tested to ensure they were safe and valid. nicola sturgeon also revealed how new regulations were being prepared to give police in scotland powers to enforce social—distancing rules. we're now preparing regulations to give police in scotland enforcement powers, colleagues in the uk government are working to do the same, and we expect these regulations to be in force as soon as possible, perhaps as early as today. the regulations give us power to enforce rules which most people are now following anyway and i want to thank people for their compliance with the advice. these enforcement powers, i hope, do not have to be used, but they are there to make sure we can ensure the right things

are done to help us delay the spread of the virus. so, where necessary, the regulations will give powers to require the closure of listed businesses and premises and will help to ensure that social distancing is enforced by these businesses and premises which are able to continue operating. we will also provide enforcement powers for the police and, where appropriate, to people designated by local authorities. they will help to enforce the rule that there should be no public gatherings of more than two people, except where these are people from the same household, or in other limited circumstances such as responding to an emergency, or work—related purposes that is genuinely essential. they will also enforce the restrictions on people staying at home. it will now be the rule that you should only be outside for a reasonable purpose — buying food or essential household or medical supplies, travelling to or carrying out essential work, exercising once a day, or providing care or assistance to others. and those found not acting in line with the regulations can be directed to return home, or made to return home.

they can also be subject to prohibition notices. and if people don't follow prohibition notices or instructions to return home, they could be liable to an on—the—spot fine and ultimately, if necessary, prosecuted. now, as the chief constable set out earlier this week, and i echo these comments, we expect the vast majority of people to do the right thing without any requirement for enforcement. i want to remind people why they are being asked to follow these rules — it is because by doing all these things, we help to slow the spread of the virus, reduce its impact on our nhs and ensure that the health service can provide treatment to those who need it. and ultimately, this is about saving lives. scotland's first minister speaking earlier today. police in north yorkshire have begun carrying out spot checks on motorists, in a bid to halt the spread of the coronavirus. as of today, police have been given powers to enforce social—distancing and stay—at—home rules. officers will be stopping vehicles and asking motorists where they are going, why they are going there,

and reminding them of the message to stay at home, protect the nhs and save lives. the crown prosecution service has warned that people who deliberately cough at police, shop workers and vulnerable people will face criminal charges. the director of public prosecutions says the cps stands behind emergency and essential workers and will not hesitate to prosecute anybody who threatens them as they go about their vital duties. it comes after a man admitted three counts of assaulting an emergency worker, after claiming to have coronavirus, and directing coughs at police who were arresting him for a separate offence. our home affairs correspondent, daniel sandford, is with us from his home in north london. it beggars belief that people actually do this! it is quite extraordinary. we have had two cases now of people falling foul of this desire to make sure that emergency workers are not threatened essentially with covid—19. there was the case you were referring to,

aaron rafferty, a5, from dagenham, who has admitted essentially assaulting police officers by coughing at them —— darren rafferty. and saying he had covid—19. we had a a0—year—old is jailed for 26 days yesterday after threatening to spit at police in blackburn arresting him and implying the spit he had was infected with covid—19. the director of prosecutions has made it quite clear his prosecutors won't hesitate to prosecute people for assault because it is an assault to threaten someone with harm and to comfort someone with harm and to comfort someone and say you have got macro is essentially threatening them with harm. and this will be applied to anyone but particularly to to police officers, shop workers, firemen, ambulance workers, nhs workers. if you are coughing at them in a threatening manner, you can now expect to be prosecuted and for the prosecutors to push for the harshest sentence. i was going to say, if

these offences are being treated as assault, we are talking aboutjail time, potentially, right? absolutely, it is a maximum of two yea rs absolutely, it is a maximum of two years in prison, it would have to be a pretty bad offence to go to that end of the scale. but certainly, jail time is implicit in the fact that the prosecutors are pushing to prosecute and they are pushing for the most harsh sentences from the courts when they prosecute. yes, i think certainly anybody in any way, if it is taken as real and genuine, who is coughing at police officers or others, they can expect themselves before the courts and spending some time in prison. prison isa spending some time in prison. prison is a place that is not a good place to be at the moment as we have had two deaths so far from covid—19 in prison. daniel, thank you. daniel sandford. well, preparations are urgently under way to turn the excel london into the nhs nightingale,

housing a,000 patients. angus crawford is there for us. how are the preparations going and when is this place behind you, which is huge, going to be up and running? well, slowly, but surely, ithink. the excel is gradually transforming into the nhs nightingale. an extraordinary structure, as you say, 100,000 square feet of space in two large halls. it is 600 metres in length. and we are told that bit by bit, as they add more facilities inside, they hope that they will begin to get into a position where they should be able to accept patients early next week. and if you look over my shoulder, you can see those big white tankers, those tanks, they were not there this morning, they are full of liquid oxygen and they will be put into place during the next couple of days

so that oxygen itself can be pumped into the new makeshift hospital there. it really will be a hospital, not makeshift, in a sense not even a field hospital, truly a new hospital built in the space of a week. will it be open? this time next week. earlier today, i spoke to the chief nursing officerfor earlier today, i spoke to the chief nursing officer for england, earlier today, i spoke to the chief nursing officerfor england, rita mae. we've seen just over 5,000 in england alone have asked... they've come back and they've said that they're willing tojoin our profession once more. i'm extremely grateful to them all. because we are facing the greatest health emergency that we have seen ever in my career and, indeed, the history of the nhs. but we need more. we absolutely need many, many more nurses, doctors, to come back and join our nhs. but what does this say about the calibre of people who are answering your call? there are some amazing experienced people that have come and said, we want to help, and we are very, very grateful to each

one of those people. and we want to make sure there are many, many more thousands. it'd be a great problem to have to have too many nurses and doctors right now. you'll see behind me we've got the first nhs nightingale london hospital being opened next week, early next week. we'll be opening up here, at the excel, and i need more nurses and doctors to help me make sure that we've got sufficient care being given. we believe at first there should be space for 500 beds inside, but should demand require, that can be expanded to 2000 in the left—hand hole and another 2000 on the right. but only if that is needed. in a sense the excel centre is becoming a model for the rest of the uk. we believe there are three more similar centres in the planning, should they

be needed. one would be in birmingham at the nec, another in manchester, and the final one in scotland. it is a fascinating experiment to see if this all works. but as your guest was saying in the clip you just play, will there be enough staff to house these new facilities? that is the critical question. it is a race against time to get the facilities, but then who will man those facilities? who will be there for all the shifts? we think it will be a mixture of nhs staff already employed in london. a call went out last night throughout all the trusts for extra staff, but as you heard in the package, there isa as you heard in the package, there is a desperate shortage already. 100,000 shortfall in staff in the nhs before the coronavirus crisis, somewhere in the region between 10% and 15% staff shortages and absences

at the moment. there will be those called back into service and 5000 have already answered the call, but they need many more to come in and staff places like the excel centre. we also know there will be military medics inside and finally stjohn ambulance will be offering hundreds of volu nteers ambulance will be offering hundreds of volunteers to help as well. but thatis of volunteers to help as well. but that is the question, by the time this opens for business next week they need not only the beds and facilities, they need the staff to man it as well. angus crawford at the excel centre in london. as nhs staff across the country care for those affected by covid—19, tonight we've got a chance tonight to thank them. the event, clap for our carers, has seen a huge amount of support on social media and will see thousands of people taking a moment at 8pm tonight, opening their doors and windows to applaud nhs staff. annemarie plas is the woman behind it all, and she explained what inspired the idea. well, i was inspired

by what i saw happening in my home country as, being dutch, i'm still in many dutch whatsapp groups, so i first saw there the image for the call happening, as well as the actual applause. and then i was looking up and i saw it was happening in way more countries than just the netherlands. and then i thought, you know, why don't we just try to do it here as well? and it was, rather spontaneously, i posted it on my social channels, on whatsapp. and before we knew it, it got spread throughout the nation. eight o'clock, you know what to do. we've talked a lot about isolation and the loneliness many people are feeling while self—isolating. here's one possible antidote. choirmaster gareth malone has set up a digital choir service. the great british home chorus facilitates online choir rehearsals and provides sheet music, warm—up exercises and music sent by email to the thousands of people who have already signed up.

i'm delighted to say we can now talk to gareth malone who is in north london. good to see you, thank you for being with us. thank you for having me. 0ur pleasure. where did the idea come from? about two weeks ago i started thinking people would be bored at home. first i thought we would do a playlist of two weeks' worth of music, but then i thought that was not enough, it needs to absorb families. my own kids will be home potentially for a long time. as it turned out we went into isolation because my wife had a fever, but, touch wood, i don't think she has coronavirus, but you don't know. we are all on lockdown and i thought many people would be bored and would wa nt to many people would be bored and would want to do something. there are so many people up and down the country who are missing their acquires, a sense of community, the contact. it is very challenging to do it over

the internet. the internet is wonderful in many respects, but it is not great for music because of the time lag between one place and another. we are finding ways around it and working with a fantastic producer called steve lipson to create fantastic experiences for people and we hope to have the first song ready at the beginning of next week. fantastic, how does it work? you can log onto youtube and look for my name, gareth malone, and you will find every night at 5:30pm i am there for about 25 minutes doing some fun warm—ups, some breathing exercises, which are really important. you have seen on this programme how important breeding is, it can't do you any harm to get involved with that. then i teach some very involved with that. then i teach some very simple harmonies and then you will upload it to the internet and we will cut all of those together to make one great british home chorus. we will be doing a different song every single week. i don't know how long this will go on

for, but i will be here for everyone. i need it as much as i think the british public need it. i need to keep on doing something and i need to keep my mind going and keep staying positive. a lot of people going stir crazy one suspects. what you hit on is the importance of people, although they are self isolating, not feeling isolated. it is about still being pa rt isolated. it is about still being part of the community even in this difficult time. it is amazing just seeing messages come through on the internet, or seeing a face on a screen, it is not as good, but it keeps you connected. i have waved at more neighbours this week than i ever have in the three years i have lived here. we are human, we are a social species, we need contact. this is the best we can do at the moment with the internet. how many people have got involved so far? we

have had 100,000 people sign up. wow. i have been doing rehearsals and the first time we were watched by 60,000 people, which is a lot for acquire. i know it is the tip of the iceberg because people are doing their choir rehearsals all over the country over the internet, or are trying. we are a nation of warblers, some are better than others. will you be able to keep going through all of this? this could be a while. it could. i'm not going anywhere. all my work was cancelled. i thought i had to do something. i have a studio at home and i am really lucky, it is somewhere i can come and work and carry on. yes, i'll be here. i am here for the duration. remind us once more how people can get involved. you can go to my facebook, instagram or twitter stock iam facebook, instagram or twitter stock i am gareth malone. you can find it

on youtube and on decca records. it is 5:30pm every single week night until we through this. wonderful stuff, a great way to get through all of this. good to talk to you. thank you forjoining us. a reminder, we are waiting for the chancellor, rishi sunak, to appear behind a podium at downing street. he will be giving details on the government measures to help the self—employed and freelancers, to help them through this coronavirus crisis. 0bviously they have lost a lot of money, on average round about £800 a month, some people, as a result of the economic shutdown. we are expecting the chancellor to come up are expecting the chancellor to come up with measures to help them and thatis up with measures to help them and that is in about five minutes for a time. but that time could slip. but let's continue now. but let's continue now. leaders of the g20 countries say

they'll inject five trillion dollars into the global economy, to tackle the fallout from the coronavirus pandemic. following a virtual summit, hosted by saudi arabia, they also promised to support the work of the world health organisation, and give ‘robust‘ support to developing nations. 0ur middle east business correspondent, sameer hashmi is in dubai. thank you forjoining us. it is a lot of money, these trillions of dollars. is it going to be enough? well, that is a tough question. 5 trillion is the beginning i think. as you soar over the last few weeks, a lot of governments have announced stimulus packages, economic measures, to help small and medium—sized businesses in different countries across europe, even here in asia, and also help for individuals. it is not clear how this money will be rooted? will it be countries announcing their own plans or will it be an action where it will be rolled out

simultaneously? we are still waiting for the details. the international monetary fund has said the world is headed towards a global recession and much more will be needed. that is what the g20's it was about, to figure out ways and measures to help, to prop up the damage to the global economy, and also have a coordinated, global action plan to deal with the coronavirus. 0ne coordinated, global action plan to deal with the coronavirus. one of the announcements they have made is about increasing medical supplies, so we will manufacture more and step up so we will manufacture more and step up the investment on that front and try to distribute it equally across the globe. there are some countries in desperate need of things like testing kits and ventilators, so thatis testing kits and ventilators, so that is the other big announcement that is the other big announcement that has been made. there is a sense we are beginning to get a bit of a coordinated approach to deal with this global pandemic, something that has been missing, frankly, for the last few months of this crisis. is there a belief now that countries

working together will be able to tackle this better than individual countries trying to handle this on their own? i will give you a background. the g20's emerged on the global stage in 2008 to the backdrop to the 2008 economic crisis, the global recession. before that it was the g7 which was the prominent grouping. but that changed after that. now this is what the countries are hoping, and again it is one of the biggest crises since 2008, and thatis the biggest crises since 2008, and that is why they are hoping the coordinated action, which they undertook in 2008, which was relatively successful, they will be able to replicate that. but last time it was more of an economic challenge, there was a liquidity crisis, the banks had to inject more money into the economy. this time it isa money into the economy. this time it is a health crisis, so the first challenge is governments come together and tackle that first? in the statement they have said they

are looking at exchanging information each other, transferring information, so they can help each country in tackling the issue. this is directed towards china because the united states has continuously been blaming china for the crisis, saying they did not share enough information at the start of the crisis, which would have helped avoid these catastrophic numbers coming out right now. that is the challenge, can they really coordinate on that front to help countries deal with this problem and bring down the number of cases that are being reported and respond more quickly? then comes the economic measure. we will see the real fallout of this on the global economy once the numbers start to normalise. this is step one and then comes a step two, the economic challenge. we will leave it there. thank you. some breaking news coming into us.

it is from our diplomatic correspondent james landale, who it is from our diplomatic correspondentjames landale, who is saying the foreign office has asked the peruvian government for permission to get three more flights for britain is out of the country. it has also asked the government in peru to allow three internal flights to ta ke peru to allow three internal flights to take britons who have been left stranded there in the area of cusco, to ta ke stranded there in the area of cusco, to take them from there to the capital lima. the next flight will give priority to the most vulnerable. earlier today 170 britons arrived home from lima, after authorities persuaded the peruvian authorities to open its airspace temporarily. about 1000 british nationals have registered with the embassy in lima, seeking to return home. the country has closed its borders, but the foreign office has asked the peruvian government for permission to get three more flights of britain's, who have been stranded in the country as a result

of the coronavirus pandemic, to get them out of the country. that news in the last couple of minutes to us here. the prime minister will be holding his daily downing street press conference shortly, where we expect the chancellor, self—employed people. let's go over to number 10. good afternoon. today, i can announce the next step in the economic fight against the coronavirus pandemic with new support for the self—employed. 0ur step—by—step action plan is aiming to slow the spread of coronavirus so fewer people need hospital treatment at any one time, protecting the

nhs's ability to cope. at every point, we have followed expert advice to be controlled in our actions, taking the right measures at the right time. we are taking unprecedented action to increase nhs capacity by increasing the number of beds, key staff and life—saving equipment on the front line to give people the care they need. that is why it is absolutely critical that people follow our instructions to stay at home so that we can protect the nhs and save lives. our action plan to beat this pandemic is the right thing to do. but we know that people are worrying about theirjobs and their incomes. working closely with businesses and trade unions, we have put together a coherent, coordinated and comprehensive economic plan. a plan which is

already starting to make a difference. big employers like brew dog and tim simms and pret a manger have said already that our coronavirus job have said already that our coronavirusjob retention scheme means they will protect thousands of jobs and we are publishing this evening detailed guidance on how the scheme will operate so that other businesses can protect jobs scheme will operate so that other businesses can protectjobs as well. small businesses are already benefiting from the coronavirus business interruption loans of up to five marine pounds which are interest free for 12 months, with 30,000 enquiries injust interest free for 12 months, with 30,000 enquiries in just four days. local authorities are already informing over 700,000 retail, hospitality and leisure businesses that they will pay no business rates this year. and the new hardship grant scheme evades grants of up to £25,000 for the smallest businesses is now up and running. so if any business is struggling and worrying

they may need to leave stuff, i would urge you to log onto business support duck of dot uk and that very carefully at what support is available before laying people off i am proud of what we have done so far, but i know that many self—employed people are deeply anxious about the support available for them. musicians and sound engineers, plumbers and electricians, taxi drivers and driving instructors, hairdressers and childminders and many others, through no fault of their own, risk their livelihoods. do you, i say this. you have not been forgotten. we will not let you behind, we all stand together. so to support those who work for themselves, today, i am announcing a new self—employed income support scheme. the

government will pay self—employed people who have been adversely affected by the coronavirus a taxable grant worth 80% of their average monthly profits over the last three years up to £2500 a month. this scheme will be open to people across the uk for at least three months and i will extend it for longer if necessary. you will be able to claim these grants and continue to do business. and we are covering the same amount of income for a self—employed person as we are for a self—employed person as we are for furloughed employees you also receive a grant worth 80%. that is unlike almost any other country and makes our scheme one of the most generous in the world. providing such unprecedented support for self—employed people has been difficult to do in practice and the self—employed are a diverse

population with some people earning significant profits. so i have taken steps to make this scheme deliverable and fair. to make sure that the scheme provides targeted support for those most in need, it will be open to anyone with trading profits of up to £50,000. to make sure only the genuinely self—employed benefit, it will be available to people who make the majority of their income from self—employment. and to minimise fraud, only those who are already in self—employment who have a tax return for 2019 will be able to apply. 0f 95% people who are majority self—employed will benefit from this scheme. hmrc are working on this agency —— urgently and expect people to be able to access the scheme no later than the beginning ofjune. if you are eligible, hmrc will contact you directly and ask you to fill out a simple online form, then pay the

grant straight into your bank account. and to make sure no one who needsit account. and to make sure no one who needs it misses out on support, we have decided to allow anyone he missed the filing deadline in january at four weeks from today to submit their tax return. but i know many self—employed people are struggling right now so we have made sure that support is available. self—employed people can access the business interruption loans, self—assessment income tax payments that would you in july self—assessment income tax payments that would you injuly can be deferred until the end ofjanuary next year —— that were due. and we have changed the welfare system so self—employed people can now access universal credit in full, a self—employed person with a nonworking partner and two children living in the social rented sector can receive welfare support of up to £1800 a month. the scheme i have announced today is fair. it is targeted at those who need it the

most and, crucially, targeted at those who need it the mostand, crucially, it targeted at those who need it the most and, crucially, it is deliverable. and it provides an unprecedented level of support for self—employed people. as we have developed the scheme, i am grateful for the conversations i have had with the federation of small businesses, the association of independent professionals and the self—employed and a range of trade unions including the trades union congress. but i must be honest and point out that in devising this scheme in response to many calls for support, it is now much harder to justify the inconsistent contributions between people of different employment statuses. if we all want to benefit equally from state support, we must all pay in equally in future. these last ten days have shaken our country and economy as never before. in the last two weeks, we have put aside ideology and orthodoxy to mobilise the full power and resources of the

british state. we have done so in the pursuit of a single goal. to protect people's health and economic security. by supporting public services like the nhs, backing businesses and protecting people's jobs and incomes, what we have done well, i believe, stand as one of the most significant economic events —— economic interventions at any point in the history of the british state and by any government anywhere in the world. we have pledged that whatever the resources the nhs needs, it will get. promised to pay 80% of the wages of furloughed workers for three months, up to £2500, deferred more than 30 beer in pounds of tax payments until the end of the year. agreed nearly 17,000 time to pay arrangements with businesses and individuals —— £30 billion. made available £333 billion

of loa ns billion. made available £333 billion of loans and guarantees, introduced gra nts of loans and guarantees, introduced grants of up to £25,000 for small business properties. cover the cost of statutory sick pay for small and medium—sized businesses for up to two weeks per employee and lifted the incomes of over a million households with a nearly £7 billion boost to our welfare system, agreed a three month mortgage holiday with lenders and nearly £1 billion more support for renters through the local housing allowance. and today, we have announced one of the most generous self—employed support schemes anywhere in the world. despite these extraordinary steps, there will be challenging times ahead. we will not be able to protect every singlejob ahead. we will not be able to protect every single job or save every single business. but i am confident that the measures we have put in place will support millions of families, businesses and self—employed people to get through this. yet through it together and

emerge on the other side both stronger and more united. thank you. if we can take some questions from the media, turning first to laura kuenssberg from the bbc. thank you very much, chancellor. you state you hope to cover nearly all of the self—employed, but what about people who this scheme does not cover and when do you hope the money will start coming through? and if i make it we have been really inundated from worries from people who feel they are not safe at work and we had a message from someone who said theiremployer a message from someone who said their employer was forcing people and they said, everyone knows it is wrong, but we are being emotionally blackmailed saint if you don't come to work, people will lose their jobs. as the chancellor, what you say to employers who are flouting the rules? and to the deputy chief medical officer, when do you expect the peak of the virus to be from the

most up—to—date information you have? thanks, laura, to your first question, this scheme, if you look at people who make the majority of their earnings from self—employment, this scheme will cover 95% of them. of the people that it does not cover, that last 5%, those above the income threshold that we set, their average incomes are about £200,000. so we think what we have done is reasonable, proportionate and fair and it covers 95% of all self—employed people who make the majority of their earnings from self—employment. so i think it is a very self—employment. so i think it is a very generous scheme self—employment. so i think it is a very generous scheme in that regard. it treats them with the same parity we did for the employed. in terms of the timing, our expectation is this will be up and running by the beginning ofjune. we will look to try and do it faster, but i don't wa nt to try and do it faster, but i don't want to promise something we can't deliver today. as i have said before, this is operationally complicated. we are already designing brand—new schemes to cover 90% of the population who are

employed. here, we need to design another scheme on top of that and we also want to give now four weeks for people who haven't filed their tax return yet from january an opportunity to do so to benefit from this scheme. i think that was a trade—off that was worth making, giving people that extra time now, those late filers, but that does have a little bit of a knock—on impact about when the scheme can be fully up and running. i will turn to jenny two answer your second question around workplace guidance and virus timing. in the workplace guidance, it is really important that employers, most of whom have been extraordinarily supportive i think of their employees, stick to the normal principles of workplace health. we have made it very clear i think what those principles are and if people can work from home, they should be able to. if they can't, there may be adaptations they can do in the workplace. we have also made it clear what sorts of distances and

practical measures can be made to ensure people are safe. so in some ways, although we have been more specific about the public health requirements in the middle of this outbreak, the same principles about workplace safety apply. and i know the health and safety executive were reminding workplaces of that today earlier. on the issue of the peak in the epidemic, i am sure you will not be surprised to know that i am not going to predict a precise timing for that and the reason for that is we are onlyjust starting to see a bite, if you like, in the interventions and social distancing that have been put into place, it would be far too early to predict that. i think we are starting to see some helpful movements, let's put it that way, and what we will be looking for is a change in the slope. rather than a very steep curve upwards, we would look for a gentler slope. but we must not take our foot off the pedal, people have been really collaborative and in the

la st been really collaborative and in the last few days, the public have really understood that this is something very serious and their actions, wherever they are, will save lives. so it is too early to stay yet —— to say yet, but starting to move on the right direction. thank you, next, beth rigby, from sky. thank you, chancellor, a question for you on your scheme. a big scheme, but you can't get the money until june. you big scheme, but you can't get the money untiljune. you are telling people they can apply for universal credit, but there is a five—week wait for the first payment. can you guarantee to people watching this who are in immediate and desperate need that if they apply for universal credit, that they will get an advance payment in ten days or less to tide them over? and a question to the deputy chief medical officer, how many nhs staff are currently unable to work because they are unwell or self—isolating?

it is obviously an area of huge concern for everyone , it is obviously an area of huge concern for everyone, thank you. about the immediate cash flow needs, of course which we are sympathetic too. we have done a couple of things with regards to universal credit, first, making it more accessible for those who are self—employed and more generous in that regard overall in terms of the measures i have already announced. in terms of speed, it is already the case, and the department for work and pensions are focused on this, that people can get an advance payment almost immediately after the claim, so they do not have to wait for the five weeks. an advance payment can be given almost immediately, that is what they are already doing. 0n immediately, that is what they are already doing. on top of that we have deployed extra resources into local authorities, particularly to help those most vulnerable, with things like their council tax bill, which for many families is a very large bill they face every month.

local authorities are in receipt of the extra money we have given them and they can work in their own communities to identify those most vulnerable families you have talked about, to ensure that they get extra help to tide them over in the weeks ahead. i do not have the precise figure with me this afternoon in relation to nhs staffing, but i am sure my nhs colleagues will do. the important thing is i recognise there are a significant number of staff who are doing the right thing, as the rest of the public are, in taking themselves out of the workforce if they are symptomatic, and maintaining the safety for the re st of and maintaining the safety for the rest of the public and in particular the vulnerable patients. we have to recognise and support that. the two things we have been doing to try to improve that as we go forward, that is the right thing to do, but we can help everybody and number one is to be clear on the workplace guidance, and there is helpful guidance

through the nhs, but particularly for people in the vulnerable group with underlying conditions. i think some people have interpreted that if they are healthy and well but have an underlying condition as perhaps needing to stay right out of the workforce. but for some of those people it will be appropriate for them to work, but on an individual discussion with their workplace. i know you will be aware we are trying to push forward on our testing programme, but right at the top of that list are the health care workers and care workers more generally and front line responders, for example in police and other first—line response systems. that is because we recognise knowing whether people have had the disease or not brings people back into the workplace and it means we know what our resilience is going forward into the depths of the academic. that is what we are trying to do. robert

peston from itv. hello? good afternoon, robert. my connection is not very stable, but i will give it a go. what about the many people who have only recently entered the workforce who might not have three years of accounts, not even one year of accounts? how can they get health? secondly, how long do you expect this scheme to run for? do you have an estimated cost per month of the scheme? finally, did i hear you right that when we are through this, you intend to equalise tax and national insurance between employment and self—employment, essentially as a form of natural justice since all of us have been bailed out on the same basis? finally, for the deputy cmo, chris

whitty said yesterday that the big problem in terms of ramping up testing is a world shortage of the bits and the kit. why didn't we order the kits weeks ago when this first emerged as a problem? why did we wait until everybody else had ordered their kits? robert, what was your first ordered their kits? robert, what was yourfirst question? ordered their kits? robert, what was your first question? it cut out. the first question is significant numbers of people have only entered the self employment workforce recently. they will not have accounts. they certainly will not have three—year or one year accounts. how will you help them? so, what we will do for those who do not have three years, we will look at whatever they have. seeing as we are looking at trading profits, those can be volatile year to year. where people do have more than one year, we will look to average out

over the years. that was something many people called for because it seemed the sensible thing to do, to smooth out volatility. if people only have one year, we will only look at one year. for people we don't know anything about, there is nothing we can do and that is one of the complicated things we have been wrestling with. most people accept we have to use the database of people we know about and who have filed tax returns and that is the population that we have talked to, those who have filed tax forms this year. for those who are very recently self—employed we cannot operate a scheme like this. there is too much complexity both operationally and a fraud risk with that. we will have to say to those people, look at the extra support we have put into the welfare system to help you at this time. as i said, this covers the vast majority of people. in terms of the timescale we have said we will do this for three

months. obviously, if we are able to make payments to people at the beginning ofjune they would receive three months payments at that one time, backdated to march, completely comparable to the employed scheme. regarding your question on tax, the broader point i would make is rather than be too specific right now about future tax policy, isjust than be too specific right now about future tax policy, is just an observation that there is currently an inconsistency in contributions between self—employed and employed and the actions taken today, which is very significant tens of billions of pounds of support for those who are self—employed, treating them the same way as those who are employed throws into like the question of inconsistency and whether that is fairto inconsistency and whether that is fair to everybody going forward, especially as we look when we get through this, and we are all chipping in together to right the ship afterwards, making sure that eve ryo ne ship afterwards, making sure that everyone is doing their bit as well, and that is a fair and reasonable observation to make at this time.

and that is a fair and reasonable observation to make at this timem relation to testing, with all of these things, whether it is testing or ppe, we have ordered and planned ahead. i think what the public perhaps will recognise is that this isa perhaps will recognise is that this is a brand—new event, it is a pandemic, and every single country is ordering at the same time. many of the reagents and the items that are used are coming from some single suppliers, but many from international suppliers, many of whom have been affected themselves by the pandemic. this is not an issue of a lack of forethought and planning, it is an unprecedented event. a few other points worth while thinking about, it is a brand—new virus, so even to understand how you might test it, you need to have the virus and understand a bit about it before you can start. there is also a really important point, whilst we are dealing with coronavirus, colleagues

and public health england, for example, ona and public health england, for example, on a day—to—day basis still need to manage all the other individual infections in the country and some of those will be of higher significance, a high risk for individual people, so it would be wrong for us to be moving stock from our daily work into this. on a final point, and the chief medical officer made the point yesterday, the evaluation of this is absolutely critical, so we do have evaluations running now and i recognise we all wa nt running now and i recognise we all want to see these testing programme is very active, but it is vitally important that when we have a test we know it does what we wanted to do, not that we have incorrect information. can we turn next to jason groves from the daily mail. thank you, chancellor. you said that the scheme will come into force in june. what are self—employed people

supposed live on until then? can i pick up on robert's point on the future tax treatment, without getting into too much detail, which you cannot do at this stage, is it fairto you cannot do at this stage, is it fair to say that you are warning the self that they may well have to pay more tax in the future? a question forjenny harries, can i ask, there are millions of us now cooped up in our houses, are you at all worried about the kind of health impacts of that? we have seen supermarket aisles stripped bare. are you worried about the impact of mental health problems, obesity, drink problems, in this crisis? jason, to your first problems, in this crisis? jason, to yourfirst question on problems, in this crisis? jason, to your first question on timing. i refer to what i said previously, we have looked very hard at the quickest possible way to deliver this. we are already delivering a brand—new system to deal with the employment scheme that we have set up, which covers 90% of the population. that will be up and running by the end of april to

ensure that those businesses can meet their payroll in april and use that scheme to pay their workers. it is the same group of people, the same systems that need to do this, so we can do some of it in parallel, but some will have to be in sequence and come afterwards. also, because we have taken the decision to allow people who were late in filing their tax returns injanuary people who were late in filing their tax returns in january four weeks from today the opportunity to file their tax returns and benefit from this scheme, that will have an impact on timing, which is a reasonable and sensible trade—off to make in the circumstances. they will get three months in one go injune which will be welcome. we have made available on multiple other avenues of support in the interim for this population of people, very considerable investments in the welfare system and through local councils and other tax deferrals. againi councils and other tax deferrals. again i am not anticipating future policy, i am again i am not anticipating future policy, iam making again i am not anticipating future policy, i am making the observation

that i think it is harder to sustain the argument that if you are employed and paying higher rate of tax on the basis that you are treated differently, and now we are treating everybody the same at a very significant cost, that we as a country and as a society as we get through this and altogether are figuring out how we right the ship afterwards, this is an observation thatis afterwards, this is an observation that is fair to make now at this point and then we can discuss in the future how best we all come together to get through this and to right the ship and to make sure that we get everything back on track again. so, i personally, and many of my public health collies, have made it very clear that we recognise there are potential mental health risks as well, that we need to be looking after our bodies and our minds at the same time. that applies to our very high—risk, vulnerable group who we have asked to take themselves out of society for 12 weeks, that is a really big ask. that is why in the

letters that have gone out to them there are specific links and suggestions around mental health and mental health welfare, all sorts of links to do that. but i might put a more optimistic view on this as well, which is if people are not going out to work, and often that creates stress in terms of travel time, they have more free time to themselves and it might be the best opportunity the whole country has to say i am going to use my one exercise session every day to ensure that by the time this is over i am superfit and so is my family. in fa ct, superfit and so is my family. in fact, if you have something restricted, it becomes a pleasurable event. even though you may not have wished tojog along event. even though you may not have wished to jog along the street before, doing so now it might be quite a positive thing for us all today. george parker from the financial times. thank you, chancellor. you have made no secret

at all of the fact that the scheme has been difficult to design. would you accept it is open to abuse? for example, people claiming the money and sitting at home? what would you say to people potentially thinking of abusing the system? medium sized companies have been in touch with us to say the bank of england loan scheme is not working for them because they do not have an investment grade, what can you do to help those companies in the so—called squeezed middle? and a question to the cmo, i don't think we have ever had a public explanation of why this country decided to stop testing for people suffering from symptoms of coronavirus when the world health organization was advocating that was a policy and other asian countries have done this with great success? george, thank you. on yourfirst question about the scheme. we are designing these things at pace as

she rightly identified. given the circumstances, i don't think we should let the perfect be the enemy of the good. we accept that means challenges. that is why we have put in conditionality to limit the risks that you identify, for example making this for people who have an actual tax return that we can look at, so we know they are genuinely self—employed and not just at, so we know they are genuinely self—employed and notjust telling us out of the blue. that is an obvious check. there will be a form that people will have to fill in. we will contact them, because we can identify them. we will ask them to apply and check a few other boxes to confirm they are still trading, which we then can later verify. we will be able to put in place some sensible compliance measures in that regard. to your second point, that is an excellent point. we have put in place a bunch of different loan guarantee scheme is to provide credit to corporate uk. there was an issue with the commercial paper

facility that we had originally set up facility that we had originally set up with the bank of england and it was for people who had an investment—grade rating. there are perfectly good not have that rating. we have worked with the bank of england to find a workaround for that, so that we can impute a credit rating from the company's individual impute a credit rating from the compa ny‘s individual relationships with their banks and in that way construct with their banks and in that way co nstru ct a with their banks and in that way construct a rating. we think that will significantly increase the addressable number of companies that can now benefit from that scheme. the details of that are eminently about to be published. i thank the back of england for working with us constructively on that. it will mean that between the coronavirus business interruption loan scheme at the bottom and four companies up to £a5 million of turnover, and the commercial paper facility on the top end, we will now be covering 80% of uk employment and 80% of corporate uk employment and 80% of corporate uk turnover with those two schemes.

that still leaves a small 20% gap in the middle. we are finding ways to try and address that gap as well. that is a little more challenging because by definition those companies are not as creditworthy and this is taxpayer money we are putting on the line is we need to make sure we are some way in protected in that regard. but now we have an improve commercial paper scheme and we have got 80% of employees and corporate revenue covered and there is a small gap we are working on to find some creative solutions for. i will answer iwillanswer in i will answer in two different sections, the first about the who comments, the comment saying test, test, test. but we need to realise the clue for who is in its title, it isa the clue for who is in its title, it is a world health organization and it is addressing all countries across the world with entirely different health infrastructures and particularly public health infrastructures. we have extremely

well developed public health system in this country and, in fact, our public health teams train others abroad, we have supported who through their go unprocessed and some of our epidemiologists have been to manila for example to support the early response in that area. so the point there is that they are addressing every country, including low and middle income countries. so encouraging all countries. so encouraging all countries to test of some type. when you come to the uk, we have made it very, very clear there has been a plan right the way through this which is entirely consistent with the science and epidemiology. we started with the containment phase and every early case of this disease was and every early case of this disease wa s followe d and every early case of this disease was followed through, every contact was followed through, every contact was traced exactly as we would do for other diseases, but particularly noticing this one. and of course, viewers will be very familiar with the fact that we had some very

strict and very successful containment facilities. but there comes a point in the pandemic where thatis comes a point in the pandemic where that is not an appropriate intervention and that is the point really where we moved into delay. and although we still do do some contact tracing and testing, for example in high—risk areas like prisons or care homes, that is not an appropriate mechanism as we go forward at that point. what we need to do is focus on the clinical management of the patients first. and then additionally, as i said earlier, on our health and care staff and first rips —— first responder stuff. if there was infinite testing facilities and we are growing them at pace and we will have them, then it moves to the public, but we need to be very careful about focusing where it is clinically most valuable. thank you. the telegraph.

sorry, we can't hear you. hello, does that work? yes, we can now. chancellor, when you look at the us unemployment figures from today and the numberof unemployment figures from today and the number of people claiming universal credit here, does it make you concerned that the cure could be worse than the virus? secondly, the deputy cmo has previously suggested the lockdown could continue on and off for six months, are you concerned that the economy could be destroyed by then? and a quick question for the deputy cmo, public health england said! million members of the public will be cell —— will be sent self testing kits at home, who will these people be, how will you choose them and what will happen to their test results? obviously, i have seen the numbers, both from the us and indeed here. of course they are very worrying. these

are people's livelihoods, their jobs, theirfinancial are people's livelihoods, their jobs, their financial security, which is now being severely damaged. iam very which is now being severely damaged. i am very cognizant of that. that is why we have acted i think at incredible speed to put together a number of different packages of supports to protect people's jobs and incomes and provide them with financial security. through what is going to be a very challenging few weeks and months. there is no two ways about that. but we are taking the advice from our medical and scientific advisers. it is the right strategy, where we make the right decisions at the right time to protect people's lives and also control the spread of this virus to a level where we can cope with it, which then allows us from a position of strength to decide how best to manage things from that point forward. but i absolutely acknowledge this is going to be challenging, people's lives and economic livelihoods will be impacted, but i do believe the measures of support we have put in place will make an enormous

difference to help to alleviate some of that hardship. and i thinkjenny? i was going to pick up, the point about lockdown was it is potentially taken about lockdown was it is potentially ta ken out of about lockdown was it is potentially taken out of the context because i said we would see measures of lockdown going forward over the next six months, that would not be an implausible outcome, but i think i also said that as we are watching the curve, it may be possible, definitely not now because we are onlyjust starting to get some benefit from this, but it may be possible to start moving that. so theissue possible to start moving that. so the issue here is about, exactly as we have done all the way through this, it is about keep watching the epidemiology and flexing those interventions at the right time, in the right place. to deliver what we need. and of the sea, i think the whole country, myself included, will wa nt whole country, myself included, will want to be back to normal soon as we can “— want to be back to normal soon as we can —— and obviously. mentioning six months is to give a general look forward about the sorts of length of

this type of pandemic. but we have to remember also that if we are successful, we are lessening the spike in the curve and we are pushing it forward. so success in some ways it means pushing it forward , some ways it means pushing it forward, but not necessarily with the strength and interventions that we have at the moment all the way through. so that would be the first point. i don't precisely recognise the quotes that you are talking about in relation to public health england, but i think there are two points probably. one is we will want to understand very quickly the way the disease has travelled around the country and through different elements of our population. so it may be that quote was in relation to work which will almost certainly go forward in due course, understanding with a proportionate sample of the population who has had the disease and who has not. and that will give usa

and who has not. and that will give us a strong clue as to when we know when the outbreak may end completely. so it is about understanding three different age groups and different vulnerable groups and different vulnerable groups what has happened, which you cannot do consistently for absolutely everybody, an entire population, in the middle of an outbreak. but i think in relation to other testing and he gets it and who doesn't, i think i probably answer to that area. the absolute point here is it is clinical benefit, it is the people going into hospital and intensive care units with acute respiratory distress syndrome and pneumonia, into the woods, and those at high risk areas and on to our health care workers. -- the wards. thank you. we are out of time. in conclusion, if i could say today was about providing reassurance to the millions of people who are self—employed and who are anxious about their security and their livelihoods. i think by any international standard, the package that we have outlined today

represents one of the most generous and comprehensive ways to support those in self—employment anywhere in the world. and i would conclude by saying this to all of those who are self—employed you are rightly anxious and worried about the next few months. you haven't been forgotten, we will not leave you behind and we are all in this together. thank you. the chancellor there rishi sunak ending that news conference which was about a0 minutes long. he was also at the podium with the deputy chief medical officerjenny harries taking questions on the government's plans to help the self—employed and freelancers get through the economic crisis caused because of the economy being effectively shut down as a result of the pandemic. lots of criticism of the government because plans for the self—employed and freelancers were not included in his

original statement on what the government was going to do a week or so ago, but now he has come forward. and he's talking about a taxable grant. it will be worth something like 80% of taxable profits for the last three years. let's recap on the main points of what he said, these are the main point of his statement helping those unemployed. he's called it ‘one of the most generous policies in the world . aiming to cover 95% of people. the measures include... a taxable grant which would cover 80% of average earnings over the past three years. up to a cap of £2,500 per month. it will be open to those with trading profits of up to £50,000. 0ur political correspondent, helen catt, is at westminster. asi as i say, the government came in for a bit of stick because it didn't mention those in the gig economy, the self—employed and freelancers in

their original statement about how they would help people get through this appalling economic crisis. 0ne suspects that for freelancers and the self—employed, they might feel he has finally delivered. well, yes, particularly in westminster, they we re particularly in westminster, they were looking for two things really. how much was the chancellor going to offer people who are self—employed and how quickly is he going to get it to them? the calls had been for him to match the employed people through companies as announced last week and that was 80% of those wages and he does appear to have match that with 80% of the average monthly profits over the last three years which is capped at the same level, £2500, which will broadly be welcomed. there are some restrictions on this, this is only four people were trading profits up to £50,000 and it is the majority of their employment and they must already have tax return for 2019. the chancellor says that will cover 95% of people in self—employment. i think the measures of how much he is

going to pay will be largely welcomed here in westminster. however, the other thing they were looking for was how quickly the money would come to people who are self—employed because we have seen incomes drop off dramatically for people in the last few days with restrictions for example and hairdressers. so they are already facing financial issues. the announcement here that this money won't be accessible until the beginning ofjune i think is going to raise a few eyebrows here at westminster. it will be backdated so the taxable grant will cover march and april and may, but that is a long time to wait if you have no money coming in and the chancellor says you would need to apply for universal credit. you can take advantage of the business interruption loans. but again, i think that will raise some concerns here. and it is understood the shadow chancellorjohn mcdonnell in recent days has been worried about people who might fall through the gaps of the schemes and we heard of a few gaps of the schemes and we heard of afew in gaps of the schemes and we heard of a few in this statement who won't be

covered by either scheme the chancellor has announced, generous as they are. they are people who are just becoming self—employed if they don't already had —— have a tax return. the chancellor says there is nothing he can do for them under this scheme. there are a few things that will be looked at in this. but to be clear as well, this sector is very important to our economy. it is a huge part of our gdp. and that is why the government had to act. yes, the government strategy on this has been really to make sure that once we get through this pandemic, there is effectively a functioning economy to come back to. so in the way he decided last week that they would offer this unprecedented level of state support to private businesses make you are now seeing a similar offer to the self—employed. interesting, though, that he did include a warning or a mention in that statement to suggest that actually, going forward, we might

see tax rules change. the idea that it is harder to justify differing contributions was what he said between those who are self—employed and those who earn through a company. 0k, thank you for that, helen catt. so, let's get the reaction to what the chancellor rishi sunak had to say. i am joined now by andy chamberlain who is the director of policy for the association of independent professionals and the self—employed — he joins me via webcam from walton—on—thames. thank you forjoining us again, i spoke to before the chancellor are eve ryo ne spoke to before the chancellor are everyone from the podium at number 10. and you made it clear that you had suggested in talks with the government that there were certain ways they should be trying to address the problems that freelancers and the self—employed we re freelancers and the self—employed were facing. and you used the phrase, don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good. he clearly was listening to you because he used that exact phrase in his statement! i suspect you are pretty happy with what he came out with today? yes, we

are and we are very what he came out with today? yes, we are and we are very grateful to the chancellor and the treasury team who have worked very hard to put this package together. it is, i think, a very package together. it is, i think, a very generous package together. it is, i think, a very generous package, it is unprecedented, we have never seen anything like this before. these are unprecedented times, of course. i know that there is going to be some people who are going to miss out in some way orfeel people who are going to miss out in some way or feel they have been hard done by and it has been mentioned people who have not yet filed a tax return, but i think that for a very large number of people, this is going to come as a huge relief. so i think for the time being, we just wa nt to think for the time being, we just want to celebrate that. those people that have missed out, we can look at that have missed out, we can look at that and try to find other areas of support and we will keep by the way our website up—to—date with where you can find support. and looking at the details of this package and how it will work at we still have to iron that out, but once we know we will keep updating our website.

these measures don't kick in until the beginning ofjune, and the chancellor made it clear people could get access to universal credit, that is £9a a week. are you concerned about that shortfall between now and june potentially for people who are already running out of cash? yes, we are talking over two months. that is a worry. i don't think the government are deliberately delaying that. i think it is difficult to put in place the system that will enable them to get the money to people. i am also conscious that the chancellor has allowed people a bit more time to make a tax return for that year if they have not done it. they should have done it by the end of january. what he said is if you get it in within the next four weeks, you will be eligible for the funding. there isa be eligible for the funding. there is a trade—off they are. there are things you can do with universal credit, yes it is £9a a week, but

there is also a housing allowance that can bump that up considerably. have a look on our website, we have got information on there. we hope we can nudge that date forward. that is what we are beginning to think already. can we persuade them in some way to harry that along? but i would stress i don't think they are deliberately going to sit on their thumbs, ithink deliberately going to sit on their thumbs, i think it takes awhile to get you like this up and running. he did talk about the fact that people had did talk about the fact that people ha d a ccess did talk about the fact that people had access to business interruption loa ns, had access to business interruption loans, but we are hearing stories of people going to their banks to get their hands on some of this cash and being told they have to put up their own homes as security. is that concerning you? yes, there is a concern. those reports that were coming in largely today do concern us. we would hope the banks would

play ball a bit more here. what we are all trying to do at the moment is get through this unprecedented crisis. we are having to bend some of our own rules to do that. look at what the government has done and what the government has done and what self—employed people are going through now. i would hope the banks would be able to do their bit as well and work out a way to get the loa ns to well and work out a way to get the loans to the businesses that need them now, without asking people to do something that they will clearly feel uncomfortable about doing. one more question, and e. do you believe there are people out there now who are struggling, who have been having problems dealing with this whole situation and who perhaps are not going to be able to cope off until june? yes, i think there will be people who were hoping to get money sooner than this. but what i would say to those people is, there may be other areas of support for you. even with universal credit it is often said, and it is true, you tend to have to wait for five weeks after you have made the correct claim or

prove that you are eligible, but there is a loan of that as well if you are eligible. what i want to do now is say thank you to the chancellor because this is a generous package. some countries have not done anything like this for their self—employed people. it is not necessarily perfect, and let's not necessarily perfect, and let's not let perfect be the enemy of the good. what we have here is something that will be pretty good for a lot of people and i am pleased with that right now. of course there will be people who are still worried and it will not be the fans getting to them in the way they want to, but let's just keep applauding the package of support that is available. andy chamberlain, thank you forjoining us. cheering the announcement from rishi sunak, concerning the measures the government wants to put in place

to help those people who are freelancers, the self—employed, who, on average, we understand have lost something like £800 a month as a result of the economic lockdown and shutdown, as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. rishi sunak was speaking from number ten at the podium. beside him was the deputy chief medical officerjenny harries. beside him was the deputy chief medical officerjenny harries. 0ur health correspondent nick triggle is here. she had a pointed question concerning testing. the suggestion was that we as a nation seem to have given up on widescale testing, compared to some of the other countries around the world who are dealing with this. what was her response to that? the government and health officials have been criticised for the approach to testing, but she was clear, that

different countries are at different stages of the outbreak. in the early stages of the outbreak. in the early stages we were testing every case, trying to contain the virus, but we have moved past that. the issue in the uk with testing at the moment is we are doing about 6000—7000 a day and they are only being offered to hospital patients, health staff and other emergency workers. some cannot get a ccess other emergency workers. some cannot get access to them and that means they have to be taken out of the workforce if someone in their household has to self—isolate. she defended the record and said this is a brand—new event and we are using international supplies at every country is trying to get hold of the testing kit and the equipment to protect the staff on the front line. it is not a lack of planning and there are plans to increase the amount of testing being done. earlier today the government confirmed that by next week there will be 12,000 tests a day done, almost double where we are today. by

mid april there will be 25,000 tests, so there are plans in place to increase that to ensure health staff ca n to increase that to ensure health staff can get tested. what did she say about the rate of infection as well? that was interesting, she was quite positive about that. she said there is a gentle slope upwards and it is moving in the right direction. that is because normally when a country sees the steepest rise, you would expect to see the cases rise by about a third day. four days ago we had 1000 new cases. yesterday we had 1a00. if you had that trajectory rising by a third each day, you would expect to see double the number of cases we saw yesterday. but we have to be cautious about that, it is only a few days. jenny harries did stress we must not take our foot off the pedal, she said the public must stay—at—home and keep to the social distancing. she also had to deal with the question suggesting that the uk was not prepared enough in terms of this crisis in relation

to the amount of ppe it has for nhs workers and front line staff. yes, we have heard about problems with staff getting hold of the gloves, the masks and the aprons and suits they have to work to protect themselves from patients who are infected with the virus. i think that has been largely down to local distribution problems. we seem to have quite a bit of equipment in the country. some hospitals have got it and some have not. the government say they have been quickly getting those out this week and hospitals should be receiving them. the british medical association said it is unacceptable and their members are anxious about treating patients with this disease without the right equipment. we are hearing stories of nhs staff who are self isolating because they have certain mild symptoms. but they are not being tested themselves. why is that?

symptoms. but they are not being tested themselves. why is that7m is simplya tested themselves. why is that7m is simply a lack of testing facilities. we started off using ten regional public health england centre to test people. hospitals have started using pathology labs now, and we are using private sector labs. but there has been problems getting hold of the testing equipment. there is a lot of demand out there and a lot of countries are trying to get hold of this equipment and they are doing their best, they say. many thanks, nick. tonight we will see thousands of people taking a moment at eight o'clock opening their doors and windows to applaud nhs staff. we spoke to the woman behind it all.|j was inspired by what i saw happening

in my home country. being dutch i am still on many dutch whatsapp groups andi still on many dutch whatsapp groups and i saw the call happening and the actual applause. then i was looking up actual applause. then i was looking up and! actual applause. then i was looking up and i saw it happening in more countries than just the netherlands andi countries than just the netherlands and i thought, why don't we just try to do it here as well? it was spontaneous and i posted it on my social channels and whatsapp and before i knew it, it got spread throughout the nation. you know what to do, it is at eight o'clock tonight. and you canjoin us at around about that time for a bbc news special on bbc one and the bbc news channel. we will be live as a people around the uk applaud the health service workers involved in battling the coronavirus epidemic. that is at eight o'clock tonight on bbc one and the bbc news channel.

and at 8:30pm on the bbc news channel we will be answering all your questions about the self—employed workers and those freelancers who today have received a package of measures which will help them deal with the economic fallout from the coronavirus epidemic. paul lewis from radio four‘s money box programme and claire barrett from the financial times will be answering your questions. tweet whatever your concerns are and your thoughts. you can find out more about the symptoms of coronavirus and how to protect yourself against it on the bbc news app and on our website. now, time for the weather. early this morning the temperature in west wales was up to 16 degrees and we are continuing to see higher temperatures on the western side of england and wales. further north it isa

england and wales. further north it is a bit cooler because we still have this band of cloud producing patchy rain, mainly across scotland. thinner cloud coming into northern ireland. england and wales will have clear skies and there may be mist and fog in the vale of york and there will be a widespread frost, and baby frost in the highlands of scotla nd and baby frost in the highlands of scotland to the north of that band of cloud. most of the rain continues across central and southern scotland, generally a light and patchy. drier, brighter weather for northern ireland. some cloud affecting parts of the south—east as well, but on the whole it is sunny in england and wales. temperatures will not be quite as high as today. more significant changes coming this weekend. high pressure dominates our weather and it is sitting to the north—west of the uk. it is changing the wind direction. we will be picking up air from the wind direction. we will be picking up airfrom the north, so it will be colder. but there will also

bea will be colder. but there will also be a stronger wind, which will make it feel colder as well. that develops during saturday. much more clout across the uk, notjust in scotla nd clout across the uk, notjust in scotland and northern ireland, but pushing into england and wales. the chance of a few showers. but temperatures will ebb away. perhaps 12 degrees in southern parts, but with the wind picking up through the day it will feel colder as well. that cold theme continues as we move into british summer time on sunday. again, a lot of clout, still sunshine here and there. shower is more likely towards the north—west. those temperatures are more typical of january. when you add those temperatures are more typical ofjanuary. when you add on the strength of the wind, in central and eastern parts of england it may feel like two or three degrees. early next week we will find it quiet and generally dry, but the winds will

not be as strong and it will not feel as cold by day, but it could be chilly by night.

help at last for britain's self—employed workers as the chancellor unveils unprecedented financial support to help them get through the coronavirus crisis. from hairdressers to taxi drivers and plumbers, millions of self—employed workers will now be able to claim 80% of their average monthly profits — up to £2,500 a month. hairdressers and childminders and many others, through no fault of their own, risk losing their livelihoods. to you, i say this. you have not been forgotten. vast tanks of oxygen installed at this conference centre in london being turned into a temporary hospital — as the capital's intensive care units deal with wave after wave of sick patients. in some places, they are really struggling.