in stirchley, in the west midlands, this once bustling microbrewery normally sells barrels to pubs which, under the new restrictions, are not buying like they used to. it's trying to adapt by selling cans directly to customers but its income has been tanking. as soon as we started to see things beginning to return to normal, back to profitability, birmingham was designated a tier 2 area and our revenue was hit massively. restaurants like this one in tier 2 or tier 3 areas have a problem. they can't claim on the scheme that pays two thirds of wages because they are not legally required to shut, but because of the rule that says two households can't mix indoors, they're seeing a sharp drop in business which makes it harder and harder to keep their staff on. after businesses and unions warned many firms could go under, the chancellor, rishi sunak, met business leaders today to announce yet another change to the government's

job support schemes. i've always said that we will adapt and evolve our support as the health situation changes and that's clearly what's happened. over the past few weeks we are seeing areas move into tier 2 restrictions and that's having a particular impact on hospitality businesses which is why we are keen to support those businesses with extra cash grants and a more generous job support scheme, helping them keep those employees in work. thejob support scheme announced a month ago helps firms who cut the hours staff work, rather than letting them go, by topping up wages. previously the government paid a third of the hours not worked. now the government will pay 62% of hours not worked with employers only paying 5%. under the scheme announced a month ago staff would have to work at least a third of their normal hours. now they will only have to work a fifth of normal hours or one day a week. the government's critics say it should have happened much sooner. last quarter we saw a record rise in redundancies. the chancellor could have done much

more if he had acted sooner. and now we see yet another last—minute move. in manchester it's not seen as a coincidence that support for businesses suddenly improves after london goes into tier 2 restrictions. why now? you know, why has it taken london to go into tier 2 for tier 2 support to become a national issue? that's the question, isn't it? it's the government's fourth change to business support schemes in as many months and a tacit admission that thejob support scheme announced less than a month ago didn't balance enough government support against the financial damage done by antivirus measures. in the economic fallout of the pandemic the facts have changed and the government's changed its mind. andy verity, bbc news. the nhs test and trace system in england has recorded its lowest weekly success rate since it began in may.

in the seven days up to the 14th of october, fewer than 60 per cent of the close contacts of people who'd tested positive for covid—i9 were reached. and only 15% of those tested at local and regional testing sites received their result within 2a hours. downing street has confirmed it is holding talks with officials in nottinghamshire and west yorkshire about moving the regions into the highest tier of coronavirus restrictions. it comes as more parts of the country face tougher measures. the health secretary, matt hancock, told mps that stoke—on—trent, coventry and slough will move into the ‘high‘ coronavirus level on saturday. today i would like to update the house on some further changes that we are making. unfortunately, we are seeing rising rates of infection in stoke—on—trent, in coventry and in slough. in all of these areas there are over 100 positive cases per 100,000 people. cases are doubling around every fortnight we are seeing a concerning increase in cases among

the over 605. so we have agreed, in partnership with local leaders, to move these areas into the high local alert level coming into force at one minute past midnight on saturday. the central change is that people cannot now meet other households socially indoors. this applies in any setting. at home, or in a restaurant, or any other venue. the rule of six still applies to any outdoor setting, and although you may continue to travel to open venues you should reduce the number ofjourneys where possible. i would like to thank local leaders in these areas for the work that they have done, for their cooperation, and i can assure the people of stoke—on—trent, of coventry, and of slough that we will support you all the way through. including with the business support that the chancellor announced earlier today for all areas with a high local alert level. and we are also formally getting discussions with warrington

about moving into the very high alert level due to a continuing rise in cases there. that was the health secretary matt hancock in the commons a little bit earlier. ajudge in new york has made public hundreds of pages of a testimony given by the british socialite, ghislaine maxwell, four years ago when she was questioned about her dealings with the convicted sex offender, jeffrey epstein. the billionaire took his own life last year. ghislaine maxwell is currently awaiting trial accused of helping epstein recruit and groom underage girls, charges she denies. earlier my colleaguejane hill spoke to our correspondent nada tawfik — who has been reading the testimony. this was from a deposition that ghislaine maxwell gave in april 2016, which was part of a defamation suit that virginia giuffre had launched against her. virginia had said she was hired and recruited by maxwell to give epstein massages after she had worked

at a resort in palm beach. ghislaine maxwell has denied that and took issue with numerous comments that virginia took in the press. this lawsuit really dealt with these defamation claims. there has been a years long fight to have this deposition released and a judge agreed that in the interest of the public, given the nature of the charges, to really see what ghislaine maxwell said happened. and what details she put forward in this disposition. she had argued that would hurt her criminal case. she is waiting eightjuly trial on those charges that you mentioned but thejudge did not agree with that and this deposition has been made public with even fighting as late as last night over redactions of some people's names. all of thatjust reminds us how different the legal system can be in the us versus this country but i

suppose this is now documentation that will be out there, people can read it, i suppose online, in newspapers and it will be poured over. absolutely and this is a very lengthy document, more than 400 pages and we have been going through it. ghislaine maxwell dodges many of the questions. she really says she never witnessed any inappropriate under age activity between jeffrey epstein and anyone. she says anything she witnessed was part of working to really manage his estates and she would often hire massage therapists, gardeners, pool people to manage the estate but again she never witnessed or hired anyone that was under age. this deposition though really does go into very specific detail. again ghislaine maxwell dodging questions but we are going through this as quickly as we can to get a bigger picture

of what else this may reveal. it is this document that really was the basis of the poetry claims that prosecutors put through in their criminal trial. we will let you get away and read more of that. donald trump and joe biden will share the stage tonight for the final presidential debate before election day on three november. with me is former republican strategist seth weathers — he worked on the 2016 campaign. and also i'm joined by democrat strategist maura keefe. hello to you both. thanks so much for joining hello to you both. thanks so much forjoining us on bbc news. seth, first of all, the president has got a lot of work to do, hasn't he? trailing in those poles. he is trailing in the polls in some cases less tha n trailing in the polls in some cases less than he was in 2016, so i don't think that's necessarily the concern in itself. he needs to fire up the base needs to fire up independence and get everyone to turn out and vote. if you look at some trafalgar

polling that was very accurate in 2016 you're seeing essentially the same thing this year which is showing in winning pennsylvania and other states and will put him over the 270 electoral votes which are me he will retain the presidency. mora, joe biden has a comfortable lead for quite some time but a lot of people have said that's partly because he has not been exposed very much to public view, and here he is in the glare of publicity tonight in this debate. what do you see other challenges for him? i think he has not been exposed to public view is probably not right. he's been a public life a long time, eight years as vice president. people know him, they like him, there could not be a clearer contrast with donald trump. joe biden is somebody that empathises with american families, understands where they come from. he has a plan for the future, and

frankly reelection campaigns are a referendum on the incumbent and with 12 days left donald trump is not made the case for his own reelection. because he has failed to grow the virus to a field in the economy, failed in this moment of racialjustice reckoning in the country, and so it's very high—stakes for donald trump tonight. you make the point of the country knows joe biden, tonight. you make the point of the country knowsjoe biden, indeed he has been in us politics for a very long time. as the first time he is running for president. and he has been bedeviled by verbal stumbles, the occasional gaff. he is in hiding right now as well... i was talking to maura, i will bring you incest. right now as well... i was talking to maura, i will bring you incestlj don't think anyone can compare to donald trump when it comes to verbal stumbles and gaffes. joe biden is the leader that america needs right 110w. the leader that america needs right now. he has shown that throughout this campaign. there will be a clear

choice on the stage tonight, joe biden will put out his view of the future of this country. donald trump has yet to do that. he has yet to make the case for his own reelection. his is a presidency of failure, and it's a presidency of chaos. i would just let you answer that, he has yet to make the case for his own reelection. that, he has yet to make the case for his own reelectionlj that, he has yet to make the case for his own reelection. i think it's been a nick in the case very strongly. we have gone through a global pandemic and unemployment is already backed up to 7% roughly. it was at the lowest it had been in american history for blacks, hispanics, women and any other minority you can name during his presidency before coronavirus and to say that's not a successful economy is pretty incredible. and as tojoe biden being what america needs, is he thatjoe biden has the other china and other nations needs. the release of the e—mails and text m essa 9 es release of the e—mails and text messages show that he was in fact receiving a percentage of money from his son possibly overseas dealings.

is the president not potentially enormously vulnerable when it comes to coronavirus with so many americans dead. himself contracting the virus, a lot of his staff in the white house contracting the virus, isn't this likely to play against him? they all recovered, as do most people. does it not suggest they we re people. does it not suggest they were not taking it seriously? are you saying that the people that have died from coronavirus did not take it seriously? that's why they are dead? i'm suggesting that people in the white house and around the president. people around the president. people around the president. so because they received it, there were not taking it seriously by the people that died from it were? no i'm suggesting that the president has mishandled the coronavirus epidemic because there have been so many deaths and along with that he himself has contracted the virus as have many people around him in the white house. in asking you whether you don't fear these will play against them. he's the

president of the united states, he did not go sit in a basement during this time, he had to be out there and is the leader of the free world. it was not a position for him to be hiding ina it was not a position for him to be hiding in a basement, if he was in private life he could have played it safer for himself personally. we also look at the fact of what he did versus what the democrats recommended, but the travel ban in place in february when the democrats called it the seed of a victim of racist and everything else they could think of. that prevented potentially millions of deaths by shutting off chinese travel at the time. no one gives them credit for that and said he did not do enough, whereas democrats like nancy pelosi and others were saying don't worry about it, go to major crowds, she went to chinatown and did major tv events telling people to come on down it's safe, with the president is saying is xena phobic. that's with the democrats are doing, no one wa nts to with the democrats are doing, no one wants to talk about that but in february when the president was putting in a travel band nancy pelosi was standing in the streets of chinatown and saying it was safe the president is xena phobic by putting this in place. let me answer

with what the president is doing right now. which is going around the country holding these super spreader events can we have seen spikes and infection rates when he has these big events with people mask lists. it does not take care of himself, his family, his staff but more importantly does not take care of the american people. his policy is dangerous, his personal behaviour is dangerous, his personal behaviour is dangerous, and he been a failure on this. let me bring it back to the debate tonight because it's so interesting that so many people have already voted by mail and balance, but we call postal voting here. a0 million is the latest figure. does that alter the importance of tonight prospect debate do you think? seth first. i think of is the more people have voted early than they typically would at this stage in the election. however from what we are seeing the majority of the people voting now are not necessarily new voters, they are not necessarily new voters, they are people that typically will vote at one time or another and just chosen to vote early. it appears a

lot of the undecided voters have not voted as much as the people that are strongly republican or strongly democrat. i think the debate is very important for that aspect is that they could get a lot of undecideds and independents turning into night that have not yet made a decision or are on the ropes of where they're going to go with it. i think it will be impactful and i think we will see a very strong, very presidential presidential truck tonight. it will be more tempered than the first debate, i think will make a very good closing argument to the people. why do you think that, why do you think you will be more presidential? the last was more aggressive if you know something about president trump he typically goes to him if he's a little more aggressive on one day he might tamper it down a little but the next day. so if you watch his presentations over time you will notice that. that's what i would expect for tonight. and it's the closing argument. same question to you really about the fact that there

have been so many mail—in ballots around a0 million, does that alter the balance of tonight prospect debate? in the spirit of bipartisanship i am going to agree with that one. i think the voters who are undecidable and persuadable will be tuning into night. it is high—stakes for president trump. i don't expect to see a different president trump. i don't think we ever get a different president trump. he is like a russian nesting doll, you open him up russian nesting doll, you open him up and he is another version of himself. we will get the same, racial divisions, the same boasting, the same dissembling, the same attacks. instead of presenting to the american people what you are going to do to tackle the coronavirus to get the economy back on track and what your plans are for the next four years. you have started off in agreement and ended up started off in agreement and ended up in great disagreement. i will

have to stop you there, thank you both very much indeed. the debate ta kes pla ce both very much indeed. the debate takes place at belmont university in nashville, tennessee. this is the scene there several hours ahead. we will have live coverage and you can follow our expert analysis on our website. now it's time for a look at the weather with darren bett. hello there. there's still a lot of clout around for scotland and the north of england. we have seen some breaks elsewhere, mind you, and into this evening we still got some patchy rain affecting eastern scotland to move away. we could see some patchy rain getting swept towards the southeast later in the night ahead of ourfirst rain band that arrives and brings some rain into northern ireland and western scotland by the end of the night. ahead of it, temperatures, well we have some clear skies for a while, could be down to four or 5 degrees. cloud amounts will be increasing.

this rain band and though it should not last long in northern ireland. patchy rain running eastwards across scotland. somewhat or whether in the morning over the cumbrian fells and onto the pennines. otherwise it's quite light and patchy rain running into eastern england in the afternoon. and behind that we do get some sunshine, there's some showers mainly for western scotland and northern ireland where it's only 11 degrees here. they make 15 in the southeast ahead of that patchy rain. over the weekend, though, it looks very unsettled. quite windy especially on saturday but we will see a band of rain followed by sunshine and showers on sunday. now, let's get the sport. lots of by now, let's get the sport. lots of rugby union news about today. england's match against the barbarians at twickenham on sunday could be. that is because a number of the barbarian players reach covid protocols by leaving their hotels last night. they have been separated from the rest of the squad and will

pay no part in that game. it will only go ahead with a number of sufficient plays with appropriate testing history can be drafted in. the rfu said they will make a decision by three tm tomorrow. this match was being used by england as preparation for the delayed six nations game against italy next week. 11 wasps players will be unavailable for saturday's premiership final against exeter. wasps were only given the green light to play yesterday after revealing the club had been hit by coronavirus with players either testing positive or having to self—isolate. the head coach said because of covid and injuries he is missing fourfrom his strongest side. the safety of our players is more important than any by players is more important than any rugby game. 0ur players are a family, so if we feel someone spent too long or too close contact with other people, yes, it is gut—wrenching for those players to

miss finals, especially when they have tested negative themselves. but the health and safety of our players and our staff and families is more important, and that of exeter as well. another busy football night. 2a europa league matches. the first of the group stage games get going in the next 20 minutes or so. early kick—offs involving arsenal and rangers. celtic against ac milan. totte n ha m rangers. celtic against ac milan. tottenha m ta ke rangers. celtic against ac milan. tottenham take on the austrians ls k at home. the leicester city match, they host the ukrainian side. the foxes side say they can be inspired by sevilla who won it four times. foxes side say they can be inspired by sevilla who won it four timesm is exciting and i remember watching the sevilla final and just seeing the sevilla final and just seeing the joy that they had of winning and obviously their qualification again for european football. that is a big

motivation for any team that comes into it. if you strip it back, your firstjob is to get out of the group stage and look to do that. we want to go as far as we possibly can. wales are playing their latest qualifying match ahead of the women's qualifying match. they won the reverse fixture 6—0 last year. helen ward with her a3rd international goal. they need to win this to keep their hopes of qualification alive. you can watch it live right now on the bbc sport website. the british cyclist teo geoghegan heart is 15 seconds off the lead afterfinishing geoghegan heart is 15 seconds off the lead after finishing second on stage 18. wasjust pipped the lead after finishing second on stage 18. was just pipped to the line by the australian. the dutchman

has taken the lead a's pinkjersey with just three more days to go before the tour finishes in milan. but the brit is very well placed in third. dan martin is up to second in spain after winning stage iii for the israel sta rt—up spain after winning stage iii for the israel start—up nation team. the irishman, battling up the final climb ahead of the race leader. and that is all sport for now. katherine downes will be back at about 6.30 but between now and then, much more on the bbc sport website of course. thanks very much, 0llie. a uk government health adviser has said the risk of covid—19 to ethnic groups is as much down to living

conditions and occupation. dr raghib ali, who was appointed to investigate the link between coronavirus and ethnicity, said everyone's risk needs to be assessed. our community affairs correspondent adina campbell reports. with me is dr halima begum, director of the runnymede trust, a think tank focused on racial equality in the uk. also i'm joined by professor naveed sattar, from the institute of cardiovascular and medical sciences at the university of glasgow. what do you make of the findings from this? we were taken aback by the two government appointees who we re the two government appointees who were recruited specifically to look after the safeguarding of ethnic minorities who have been disproportionately impacted to come on national television and announce

that racism has nothing to do with the increased risks. it was disappointing, because we have been waiting since march to hear but the government's plans and how they would protect minority communities. it didn't leave us with much confidence. he is saying the increased risk is down to factors such as living circumstances and occupation, would you not count those as being part of structural racism, as he put it? there is a fundamental lack of understanding of what structural racism is. not what you would expect from a clinical scientist because that is not their forte of expertise. structural racism, inequalities in health they compound each other and that is why we refer to structural racism and underlying health inequalities is one of the major drivers for the excess death rates in the communities from covid at the moment. what is your opinion of

this? well, i am a clinician so i don't want to get into the structural racism argument too much. but clearly there is an uneven spread of the virus in the community. i think there is evidence that south asians and blacks have had more of the infection linked to perhaps more of them do live in less advantaged areas, more work in public facing jobs and live in multi—generational households. that gets more viral spread. but there are additional biological factors, that probably interacts with certain factors that leads to greater risks once the infection takes over. we know that south asians and blacks do have more diabetes and diabetes is a strong risk factor. potentially more kidney disease and there is a range of factors going on here. i think the top line is, as a community and a nation, we need to decide where we put our money. i would love, if we

could re balance wealth put our money. i would love, if we could rebalance wealth in society so we can improve people'sjobs, education, housing so that people have incentives to seek better health all around, not just have incentives to seek better health all around, notjust blacks and whites but people in the general population. but as a clinician, would you like to see a clear strategy for protecting people from bame backgrounds, given, as you say we see a greater propensity to attract covid—19? we see a greater propensity to attract covid-19? we can do that, but we can do it in a way that is evidence—based. there has been a risk factor which does have ethnicity. that means certain ethnicities are placed a high risk, given everything else being equal. that will lead to different types of interventions. we need better communication within the community to help people. at the end of the day, the things that will make the

difference are improving people's lives through better education, jobs, housing and improving the environment and the food health environment. all of these things make a difference and they will probably be the most important factors going forward. it will be interesting to see what doctor burgon thinks? i would not disagree with that analysis. but fundamentally, we have a health crisis, a social crisis and an economic crisis to deal with. so far the government's response on the health front has been slow and delayed and has cost the lives in black and minority communities. the reasons for that have been clear since march, and black and minority communities have been more vulnerable to external risks. you will have heard the report we published two days ago where we highlighted the evidence showing the structural inequalities, structural racism that is linked to black and minority and ethnic communities that

lead to over exposure and under protection in the environment. and thatis protection in the environment. and that is a reason why we are seeing the disproportionate number of deaths. the measures we want to see put forward are very clear and they are in front of the government at the moment, but they won't engage with it. some of those measures, including what we have just heard from the other guest speaker, they include measures around financial security, social security and so on. what i want to talk about today, if you look at the measures government announced this morning, we have been waiting months and months for the government to respond to the disproportionate numbers of ethnic minority communities. looking at the data, we know we are dying, what we wa nt data, we know we are dying, what we want is to see some action.|j data, we know we are dying, what we want is to see some action. i am so sorry to have to cut you off but we are constructed on time. thank you both very much.

the chancellor rishi sunak has made an announcement on more help. earlier my collegaue jane hill put your questions on the government's newjob support announcement to our experts in your questions answered. we're joined by our economics correspondent andy varity and also by michelle 0vens, who's director at the organization small business britain, answering as many of your questions as we can get through. welcome to both of you. we've got some pretty extensive questions here today, michelle, and i think and andy, and i think that's a reflection of the complications of everything that's been announced. i'm struck that there were quite a few questions from people talking about zero hours contracts. so, for example, tracy pernice says. "how does this announcement from the chancellor help people in tier 2 in the catering industry

on zero hours contracts?" matthew in coventry says. "how can that 62% support help someone on zero hours when there is no fixed or reliable estimate of the number of hours we work?" it's such a big part of the economy now, isn't it? zero hours. and i'll start with you. yeah, well, the treasury say that they are included if they have zero hours contracts. they were included previously in the job support scheme as announced before. and there's a way that they have of working out an average that people were paid according to their average hours. and i think it's certified by the applicant and then they will pay out according to that average. 0k, according to the average? i mean, michelle, it's still... ..it‘s a tricky one, isn't it? because some people just don't have an average, it might be peaks and troughs, depending on the sort of industry they're in. yes. and that was recognised during the furlough scheme, actually. and it can work out an average based on if you work for eight months, the average over those eight months. so they will kind of smooth out to get an average. the exact requirements haven't been announced for this morning's announcements.

but we should see that generally what we hear is what's announced and then we get the details over the coming days. but they are clear that those on zero hours contracts will, so long as they were employed on september 23rd, will be eligible for support. ok, so it's part of the plans it absolutely should be there. an interesting point from mike moran, who says he's from a family—run travel agency. we found effectively no footfall since march. we all know why. he says we've seen a 99% drop in turnover yet all the help seems to be going to hospitality. why is there no support for viable travel agencies who've had the rug pulled from under them? if pubs can get help, why not us? michelle, i'll start with you. i know there has been a lot of discussion about hospitality over the last couple of weeks, but the announcements this morning and certainly with the job support scheme apply to everyone, not just to hospitality.

so i think that's good news. and although the grants announced this morning do apply to hospitality, hotels, leisure. there is an extra grant going to local authorities that are at local authority discretion to give out. so that would be one to have a look at as well. other support measures are in place. so, you know, bounceback loans have been extended, this new loan scheme being announced in january. also, there are you know, there's other programmes, government—funded programmes like the small business leadership programme that's been delivered by the small business charter. that's training for management and, you know, help to help businesses manage through this crisis as well. so there are lots of things available for travel agencies, and i'm not minimizing the challenges that they would have faced. this is it's a really difficult time for the travel industry. oh, gosh, absolutely. and andy, it's interesting because much earlier on in the covid pandemic,

i felt as if we talked about the impact on the travel industry a lot, but i guess more latterly, there has been a focus on hospitality, hasn't there, which is a huge sector again, of the british british economy? that's right. independent retailers also complain that they haven't been offered the same levels of support. but every sme, every small and medium sized enterprise is eligible to apply for the job support scheme on the new, more generous terms. all they have to do is meet the basic criteria, which is that they employ someone for a fifth of their normal hours and then the government will pay 62% of the hours that they're not working. so if your income's massively reduced, maybe not by 95%, but say its reduced by 80%, then you could reduce your employee's hours right down to one day a week and the government would pay two thirds of the cost of the wages for the other four days. 0k, all right, thank you. a question from kathy casey, particularly talking about the situation in northern ireland because she said... "what assistance is there under the grants and the job retention scheme for hair and beauty businesses in northern ireland?

because we're forced to close for four weeks from mid—november?" well, in theory, forfour weeks. and of course, it might end up being longer. have changes been made to the job retention scheme qualification to help people in that sort of category here? and it's close contact industries, isn't it? hair and beauty. well, that's right, and thejob support scheme extension, which is a bit like a furlough scheme, which was announced a couple of weeks ago, is what's relevant here. if you are legally required to close by the government's restrictions, then you're entitled to claim two thirds of the wage bill of your employees. so what will happen there is that the government will step in to pay that amount. and maybe the employee has a slightly reduced wage, but they do still get a decent income, much above the benefit level. all right, michelle, did you want to come in on that one as well? no. i mean, the only thing i would say is that the chancellor did stress this morning that the announcements covered all of the whole of the uk.

so in wales as well, if you're mandated to close and then you will be eligible for the job support scheme and anybody who is mandated to close can apply for that two thirds of support. so that's not based on the you know, we're talking about the employees having to work 20%, and so yes, it's wales as well, not just northern ireland. yes. a good a good reminder and another reminder of how we really have to keep tabs on things depending where you live. and it does get hugely complicated. here's an interesting one which says... "i'm an executive uber driver. my income has dropped by 80%. the chancellor has announced that a quarter will be paid by the government and a quarter paid by the employer. but we are self—employed. so what does that mean for us"? andy, first. well, he should be eligible for the new self—employed grants. so they doubled the self—employed grant that they were offering just a month ago under the newjob support scheme terms, it was going to be just 20% of profits. but now you can claim up to a0% of profits and the maximum grant goes up from 1,875 to £3,750.

the government saying that's worth about £3 billion altogether in support to self—employed people. so i would have thought our uber driver there would be eligible for that. am i right in saying it's still the case that to get help as a self—employed person, you have to have been registered as self—employed for three year, is that right? well, you have to have been registered as self—employed for more than a year. in fact, it goes back to april last year, april 2019. from before then you have to have been eligible. and i think you have to show an average, we may be able to get some clarification, i think it's an average of three years profit and it's based on that, that you are eligible for the self—employed grant. so i suppose someone who is only very recently self—employed or perhaps went self—employed right before lockdown. and luckily for them, i mean, people like that, i suppose, have have fallen through nets, haven't they? there are big gaps in the safety net. and this is a really serious point. a lot of self—employed people aren't sole traders who would be eligible for these grants, but are set up as limited

companies and pay themselves through dividends. now, these people have been completely excluded from the coronavirus support schemes for seven months, and some of them haven't been able to get income from benefits either. some of them are losing their mental health right now because they're desperate. they haven't had an income for a very long time. and yet, unfortunately, in this announcement, there isn't anything for them. that's a really, really interesting point. let's move to a question from matt in birmingham. it talks about the changeover that's coming. and it's it's interesting point, actually. matt says... "we are a tier 2 business closed at the moment. all staff are furloughed at the moment. but as we know, furlough, michelle, ends at the end of october. so do we make all staff redundant on the 1st of november or is there a scheme available to pay staff after the 1st of november? because with the current restrictions, we just can't afford to reopen". goodness, michelle. so in tier 2 you won't be mandated to close. so the job support scheme, which is where you need to have your staff working 20%

of time, so that's basically full time and one day a week in order to access that scheme. and so this is what was announced this morning. it essentially means that your staff can be, if they are working 20% of time with the government top up, they can be earning about 73%, i think it is, of their normal salary. so it's not like for like replacement of fulough. you will need staff working one day a week. but it might be a way for matt to be able to bring staff back at the end of furlough instead of having to lay people off, which would be unfortunate. are we going to see complications, andy, when that change inevitably from the end of october to the 1st of november? well, yeah. i mean, it's interesting the timing of this, because if it had come a few weeks before, a lot of the decisions that employers have made about whether to let people go or not, the arithmetic that underlies that decision would have been quite different. so unfortunately, some people would have been made redundant, but it's much more generous support now for people who do

decide to keep people on. so whereas a company whose revenue had halved, for example, previously might have said, furlough scheme, doesn't work for me, i'm going to get rid of half my staff. now they can make them all work half their hours and the government will help make up their income so all the employees have about two thirds of their pay. so it does tilt the balance much more in favor of keeping people on and much less in favor of letting people go. 0k, michelle, a question, michelle, from deborah for you. "as a business provider, giving lighting and electrical solutions to things like outdoor events and corporate hospitality, we've been unable to trade for most of the year because, of course, all the events have been cancelled. we have lost 95% of our annual turnover. why are event suppliers not included in the job support scheme?" 0k, well, so firstly, they are included in the job support scheme. this is for... the job support scheme is for everyone. it's not it's notjust for tier 3, it's not just for certain sectors.

it is for every sector, it's for every business. it does require you, if you are not mandated to close, to have your staff working 20% of the time. and you've lost 95% of annual turnover, that might be that might be tricky to bring people back for 20% of time. but if you can, then absolutely you can access the job support scheme. so hopefully that might be an option for deborah. on that point, can i say something? yeah, so the leisure industry has been offered help, discretionary grants from the local authorities and the government's going to fund that. but the difficulty that we've had with that for months and we will still have, it looks like, is that you have to have a rateable value in order to be able to claim that local authority grant. a lot of companies in the event sector, for example, you know, conference companies... and it's a huge businesses? yes. but they may not have a premises and therefore they may not have a rateable value. and for the last six or seven months, they've been

excluded from support, too, because they don't have that rateable value. so they can't collect that grant. but as i mentioned, they can still apply for the job support scheme if they can manage to muster 20% of their normal turnover. right. so that's the that's the big point, isn't it? and can they they might be looking at thinking, goodness, when are companies is going to start running conferences again and all the sort of things they work on. really interesting. we'll talk more about that in the future, i'm quite sure as well. and sunil sukumaran has asked the government's borrowing the money to help with all this support. it's billions of pounds. sooner or later, it'll have to be paid back. by when will it be paid back and what form could it take? for example, could it mean tax increases? big question for the future? short answer, eventually, of course,

it will have to mean tax increases at some point. but when we talk about the timing of paying this money back, we should remember that actually we're in a kind of a war like economy at the moment. the economy is almost on a war footing more than it has been in peacetime ever before. and in the war, we didn't worry about borrowing money in order to pay for weapons to fight the nazis. that was something that had to be paid back by future generations. interest rates are so low at the moment. you can borrow, the government can borrow very easy terms over a very long time. so actually, this money wouldn't necessarily have to be paid back any time soon, so long as the interest rates are easily covered by the government's revenue. and they're so low at the moment that if the government borrowed long at cheap interest rates, there wouldn't be any pressure to pay it back in the next four or five years, maybe not even in the next ten. really interesting. we'll talk more about that in the future, i'm quite sure as well. thank you very much. thank you very much to both of you. michelle evans and andy verity, thank you so much. i'm so glad you're across that level of detail because, my goodness, it is complicated for people. thank you very much indeed.

they have patchy rain affecting eastern scotland. patchy rain getting swept towards the south—east later in the night ahead of our first rain band that arrives and brings rain into northern ireland and western scotland by the end of the night. ahead of it, temperatures where we had clear skies for a while could be down to a5 degrees in cloud amounts will be increasing. this rain band should not last long in northern ireland, patchy rain across scotla nd northern ireland, patchy rain across scotland in wetter weather over the cumbrian fells and onto the pennines, otherwise it is quite light and patchy rain running into eastern england in the afternoon. behind that sunshine and showers, mainly for western scotland and northern ireland where it is only 11 degrees here. they make 15 in the south—east ahead of the patchy rain. 0ver south—east ahead of the patchy rain. over the weekend, it looks u nsettled, over the weekend, it looks unsettled, windy on saturday where we see a band of rain followed by sunshine and showers on sunday.