Senior hospitality figures criticise UK Covid inquiry proposals

The upcoming inquiry into the UK's coronavirus response has been criticised for failing to consider the full impact on the hospitality industry.

Draft terms of reference, which cover what the probe will investigate and how it will be structured, were subject to a public consultation which closed on 7 April. The inquiry is due to start in the spring.

UKHospitality chief executive Kate Nicholls said she was concerned the terms of reference were "wide ranging" and ran the risk of "key learnings" from sectors such as hospitality being missed.

She called for a sector-specific approach and said the impact of economic and public health decisions made by the government should be examined separately.

Hugh Osmond, the founder of Punch Taverns; Sacha Lord, night-time economy advisor for Greater Manchester; and Michael Kill, chief executive of the Night Time Industries Association (NTIA), have also made submissions criticising the draft terms of reference.

They said the proposals fail to consider the impact of specific restrictions on hospitality such as the 10pm curfew and requirement for social distancing and table service.

In their submission, the trio said the measures caused "wide-reaching damage" including the bankruptcy of many previously viable businesses, unemployment, and negatively affecting the mental health of staff and business owners.

Osmond, Lord, and Kill have also called for consideration to be given to how social distancing impacted bars and restaurants compared to other sectors such as retail.

They said the best way to learn from the pandemic was to produce a framework to assess any possible future restrictions to see if they are "justifiable, reasonable and necessary".

The group called for the publication of an urgent interim report to assess the economic impact of closing hospitality.

They said: "If complete closure of the industry becomes the expected response, the sector will become un-investable… The importance of the timing of such a report is crucial; if the inquiry waits until the end of its process before producing a report, further waves of Covid may have hit, and it may already be too late for the sector to recover."

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