The government has responded urgently to the latest developments by bringing in a number of measures. From 4am, Saturday 7 November 2020, the Home Office is implementing immigration powers meaning visitors arriving into the UK from Denmark will not be permitted entry into the UK. This excludes freight and hauliers.

The decision to act quickly follows the release of further information from health authorities in Denmark reporting widespread outbreaks of coronavirus (COVID-19) in mink farms, with a variant strain of the virus spreading to some local communities.

Yesterday the Department for Transport announced that Denmark would no longer be on the UK’s travel corridors list. We are also now expanding the self-isolation requirements for Denmark. From 4am on 7 November, British Nationals, or residents, who are returning to the UK directly or indirectly from Denmark will need to self-isolate along with all other members of their household until 2 weeks have passed since they were last in Denmark. Unlike other travel to the UK, there will be no exemptions to this quarantine policy.

For those who arrived before 4am on 7 November, we are also asking anyone who has been in Denmark in the last 14 days, to self-isolate along with their households. The length of that self-isolation will depend on when travellers were last in Denmark, and those affected will be contacted with advice via the means detailed on their passenger locator forms completed on arrival to the UK.

Anyone who has returned from Denmark within the last 2 weeks will be contacted to ensure they complete the self-isolation needed to ensure the virus does not spread across the UK.

The UK government is working closely with international partners to understand the changes in the virus that have been reported in Denmark and we are conducting a programme of further research here in the UK to inform our risk assessments.

All travellers, including British Nationals and residents who are returning from Denmark, will be required to show a complete passenger locator form on arrival into the UK. This is critical in being able to track the virus in case of any local outbreaks. Yesterday the Home Office announced they would step up Border Force presence to ensure that those arriving to the UK from Denmark were compliant with the new restrictions.

The travel ban and expanded self-isolation requirements will be reviewed after one week.

Decisions on border measures and travel advice can be changed rapidly if necessary to help stop the spread of the disease and further announcements regarding freight will be made later today.

The Health Protection (Coronavirus, International Travel) (England) (Amendment) (No. 23) Regulations 2020 (PDF, 172KB, 2 pages)

• More help for heritage in need with £14 million investment in England’s historic sites including Durham Cathedral and Blenheim Palace, the birthplace of Sir Winston Churchill
• Iconic venue Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Club, London, and leading arts organisations Opera North, Leeds, and The Lowry, Salford, among leading cultural centres helped by over £18 million in grants

Lifeline grants from the latest round of the £1.57 billion Culture Recovery Fund will protect a further 162 heritage sites to ensure that jobs and access to arts, culture and heritage in local communities are protected in the months ahead, the Culture Secretary announced today.

Historic sites and leading cultural organisations, including iconic venues like Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Club and The Lowry in Salford, will receive help to meet ongoing costs and support to restart activity when it is possible to do so safely.

Over £18 million in funding will go to 8 arts and cultural organisations around the country in the second round of grants between £1 million and £3 million awarded by Arts Council England on behalf of the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport. This funding builds on £75 million in grants over £1 million for iconic venues like Shakespeare’s Globe and the Sheffield Crucible last month. In this round one of the oldest jazz clubs in the world, Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Club, will receive £1,272,631 to explore streamed performance opportunities for emerging and established British musicians.

More than £9 million has been allocated by the National Lottery Heritage Fund and Historic England on behalf of the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, which builds on £103 million awarded to places such as Highclere Castle last month. In addition, £5 million will go to construction and maintenance projects that have been paused due to the pandemic.

St Paul’s and Durham Cathedral are among some of the country’s most recognisable landmarks receiving the highest available grants over £1 million to ensure they can be protected from the ongoing impact of the coronavirus pandemic. A grant of £2,125,000 will provide stability for St Paul’s which usually relies on visitors for 90% of its annual income and Durham Cathedral, popular with thousands of visitors every year as a filming location for Hogwarts in the Harry Potter films, will receive £1,935,000 to cover staff costs and installing essential safety measures.

Blenheim Palace, the Oxfordshire birthplace of Sir Winston Churchill, will receive £1,896,000 for extensive repairs and updates to exhibition areas for visitors when it is safe to reopen.

All four nations are benefiting from the UK Government’s £1.57 billion Culture Recovery Fund, with £188 million barnetted to the Devolved Administrations to run their own process – £97 million for Scotland, £59 million for Wales and £33 million for Northern Ireland. This funding will enable them to increase the support already available to the arts and cultural sectors in each nation.

Culture Secretary, Oliver Dowden, said:

These grants will help the places that have shaped our skylines for hundreds of years and that continue to define culture in our towns and cities.

From St Paul’s and Ronnie Scott’s to The Lowry and Durham Cathedral, we’re protecting heritage and culture in every corner of the country to save jobs and ensure it can bounce back strongly.

Grants between between £10,000 and £1 million have been awarded to stabilise 77 organisations. Sites include Jodrell Bank Discovery Centre in Macclesfield, the UK’s newest UNESCO World Heritage Site, which will receive £125,600 to develop the centre’s online offer to engage visitors unable to attend the site.

Historic England has allocated £3,971,513 in awards from the Heritage Stimulus Fund, part of a £120 million capital investment from the Culture Recovery Fund, to restart construction and maintenance projects facing delays or increased costs as a result of the pandemic and save specialist livelihoods in the sector.

Projects include Taylor’s Bell Foundry, the only surviving bell foundry still in operation in the UK, which will receive £449,918 for urgent repairs to the site to ensure that manufacturing can continue. As well as supporting thousands of heritage sites that rely on its services to maintain their historic bells and towers, this grant will preserve skills and processes unique to the industry.

74 organisations are also receiving grants of up to £25,000 from the Covid-19 Emergency Heritage at Risk Response Fund, launched by Historic England and almost quadrupled thanks to the Culture Recovery Fund, to cover maintenance and repairs urgently needed on historic buildings and sites up and down the country. The unique Crystal Palace Dinosaurs which will benefit from £19,870 for repairs to these cherished local landmarks.

Duncan Wilson, Chief Executive, Historic England said:

Historic places across the country, from Durham Cathedral embodying more than a thousand years of history to the Crystal Palace dinosaurs, much loved by children and grownups alike, are being supported by the Government’s latest round of grants awarded under the Culture Recovery Fund. This funding is a lifeline which is kickstarting essential repairs and maintenance at many of our most precious historic sites, so they can begin to recover from the damaging effects of Covid-19. It is also providing employment for skilled craft workers who help to keep historic places alive and the wheels of the heritage sector turning. Our shared heritage is an anchor for us all in these challenging times and this funding will help to ensure it remains part of our collective future.

Ros Kerslake, Chief Executive, the National Lottery Heritage Fund said:

The Government’s £1.57bn package for culture is unprecedented and it’s important to acknowledge how valuable this has been for our heritage organisations and visitor attractions. Although we are not able to support everyone facing difficulties, today’s funding package helps a diverse range of heritage organisations from across the country survive, adapt and plan for a brighter future through the Culture Recovery Fund for Heritage. “By the end of this financial year we will have distributed almost £600m of Government and National Lottery Funding to heritage organisations. Investing in heritage remains vitally important, creating jobs and economic prosperity, driving tourism, supporting our wellbeing and making our towns, cities, and rural areas better places to live. There is a lot more work to do to address the ongoing challenges, but this funding has provided a future for much of our heritage and the organisations that care for it, when it might otherwise have been permanently lost.”

As with other rounds, the majority of the awards have been allocated to organisations outside the capital.

The Lowry, Salford’s leading arts hub, touring venue and home to the national collection of works by LS Lowry, will receive £3,000,000 to cover ongoing costs incurred during the pandemic. Opera North, one of the major cultural institutions in the North of England and a leading opera company, will receive £2,000,000 to deliver its innovative Switch ON programme of online performances and continue its education activity virtually, including the In Harmony programme and other community partnerships.

Sir Nicholas Serota, Chair, Arts Council England, said:

Culture makes a huge and increasing contribution to our national life, bringing communities together, fuelling our creative industries, and representing our country on the world stage. These grants add to those announced last month, and will put these organisations in a better position to bounce back and help their communities recover from this crisis. The Arts Council is grateful to the government for the special support being made available to the arts and culture through the Culture Recovery Fund and we’re proud to support all the organisations receiving awards today.

Other arts organisations receiving grants from Arts Council England include:

• The Marlowe Theatre, Canterbury – £2,999,999 in grant funding will cover core operating costs during this challenging period and help the theatre prepare effectively for reopening in Spring 2021.

The Marlowe Theatre hosts West End shows and large-scale touring productions as well as dance, music and comedy performances in the heart of Canterbury. The Marlowe co-produces award-winning pantomime and commissions work at all scales to provide participation opportunities for local communities.

• North York Moors Historical Railway Trust, Yorkshire – £1,904,902 will help this accredited museum and authentic steam-age visitor experience maintain skilled staff and care for the historic locomotives in its collection.

The North York Moors Historical Railway is the longest heritage railway in the UK, stretching for 18 miles through the North York Moors National Park, and is one of the biggest employers in the area supporting the region’s tourism economy.

• London Venue Group, London – £2,358,902 will maintain well-known venues in the capital during closure and enable them to explore streaming options in the future.

Omeara, The Social and Lafayette, the group’s main spaces in the capital, provide a crucial platform for grassroot musicians and welcome record label showcases and some of the leading rising artists in UK music. These venues have been a launchpad for a huge range of some of the UK’s biggest artists, from Adele and the Chemical Brothers to Ella Eyre and James Bay.

• Academy Music Group, London – £2,981,431 will help meet the core operating costs of 20 leading live music venues across the country, including O2 Academy venues in London, Leeds and Liverpool.

The 20 English music venues within the Academy Music Group organise around 3,000 events every year, hosting some of the UK’s leading artists and global stars including Ed Sheeran, Beyonce, Coldplay, Madonna and Dua Lipa.

Notes to editors

Full lists of organisations receiving funding awarded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund and Historic England are here.

A full list of organisations receiving funding awarded by Arts Council England is here.

Additional quotes

Julia Fawcett, Chief Executive, The Lowry, said:

Thank you to the Arts Council and the Government for the grant of £3 million from the Cultural Recovery Fund. This fund has provided a vital lifeline to many arts organisations up and down the country and we are incredibly grateful for the support that it will provide to The Lowry.

Since being forced to close our doors back in March we have done our best to continue to serve our audiences, support our staff and provide creative opportunities for artists and communities – all in the face of losing 93% (£12m) of our income and the very real threat of permanent closure.

With this much-needed grant, we can begin the task of rebuilding our artistic and engagement programmes and continue to play our part in the cultural ecology in the North of England with confidence.

We’ll use it to make our galleries, theatre auditoria, workshop studios and employee areas socially distant, COVID-19 secure spaces. We’ll programme work of the widest possible range of genres and commission artists to create new work for the new normal. We’ll also extend our work in the local community in Salford, ensuring some of the city’s most vulnerable citizens are supported through this crisis.

Culture is an essential part of our fabric of life and the arts will play a key role as the nation recovers from the pandemic. Never before has the freedom to come together with friends, family and strangers to experience culture – in all its forms – been more important.

Deborah Shaw, Chief Executive, The Marlowe Trust, said:

We are thrilled and relieved to receive this vital support of £3 million from the Cultural Recovery Fund, which takes away the threat of permanent closure in the face of the Covid-19 crisis and supports our organisation through until the end of March 2021. We are hugely grateful to the Treasury and DCMS for their commitment to safeguarding the nation’s cultural life at this time, and to the Arts Council for ensuring that the funds have been distributed so widely.

The Marlowe receives no revenue funding and operates as a self-funding charity. We are reliant on Box Office for 99% of our income and our success in normal years allows us to invest in regional artists and production and to create a rich programme of creative opportunities for our thriving youth companies, our network of 22 associate schools and the communities of Kent.

With this funding, we are able to continue that work, build our organisational resilience and support our brilliant workforce. We intend to re-open as soon as possible, so we can be at the heart of our city and region’s spiritual, social and economic recovery.

Richard Mantle, General Director, Opera North, said:

It is with overwhelming gratitude that we warmly welcome the announcement that Opera North is to receive £2 million from Arts Council England as part of the Government’s Culture Recovery Fund to support the future financial resilience of the company.

Not only is this an enormous vote of confidence in the work of our company but real evidence of the government’s determination to invest in the north at a time when so many cities and communities are facing such uncertainty.

Our core purpose is to use music and opera to create extraordinary experiences for everyone, and we have stayed true to this vision throughout the uncertain times of 2020, sharing and making music live and online with people in the communities we serve.

We are grateful to Arts Council England, Leeds City Council and so many of our supporters and donors who have stood by us over these past months and into the future as we continue make music in theatres, concert halls, classrooms, community centres and public spaces across the north.

Will Palin, Chair, Sheerness Dockyard Preservation Trust said:

This wonderful grant has thrown us a life-line. The funds will allow us to press ahead with the repair and regeneration of this nationally-important building at risk, located in one of the most economically challenged areas of the South East. The funding will also help to support a range of apprenticeships in specialist areas of building conservation including stone restoration and brickwork.

Sarah McLeod, CEO, Wentworth Woodhouse Preservation Trust, said:

We are incredibly grateful to receive this hugely generous grant. Over the last three years a huge amount of vital repair work has been undertaken to protect the buildings and their beautiful architectural features.

This grant means we can further that work and tackle other roofs in a number of Grade I listed areas which are also in a critical state of decay. Repairs will be made to roofs over the Mansion’s North Pavilion, North and South Quadrants, the Meter House and a further section of the Long Gallery, protecting rooms below and contributing greatly to the building’s sustainability.

Wentworth Woodhouse is arguably the greatest and most challenging restoration project for a generation.

Andrew Wilby, from the Loughborough Bellfoundry Trust, said:

The Trust is delighted to receive this grant. It will make a huge difference to the preservation of the bellfoundry and sustaining the name of Taylor’s Bells around the world. It will also help to create an educational and tourist attraction of significance to Loughborough and the country.

Jon-Paul Bertorelli Lindsey, Director, Creeksea Place, said:

We are tremendously grateful for this grant. These crucial repair works will help us to open much of the 16th century wing for the first time in over half a century, enabling visitors to enjoy and experience the majesty of Creeksea’s rich and vibrant history.

The Very Reverend, Dean of Durham, Andrew Tremlett, said:

We are enormously grateful to the Government, The National Lottery Heritage Fund and Historic England for their support and investment in the cultural sector and the lifeline they have given us here at Durham Cathedral in the shape of this substantial Cultural Recovery Fund grant.

Durham Cathedral has served its community as a place of worship, learning, and wonder for almost 1,000 years, and this grant will help us to weather the recent storm by ensuring that the doors of one of the most iconic buildings of the North remain open to all. The grant will provide immediate help to support the cathedral’s recovery plans and build resilience to help safeguard this unique and sacred treasure for the people of the North East and those who visit from across the UK and the world.

The funding will go towards protecting the cathedral’s historic buildings which accrue significant operating costs even during periods of closure, as well as additional cleaning costs and health and safety equipment so that the cathedral can continue to provide a safe welcome to its visitors and meet its Good to Go Visit Britain accreditation. It will also help to protect some job roles in the immediate future and build greater financial resilience by supporting operational and cultural changes which aim to grow visitor numbers, deliver exceptional experiences – both in person or online – improve organisational planning and harness the opportunities provided by digital working.

Teresa Anderson, Director, Jodrell Bank Discovery Centre, said:

Along with many of our fellow heritage and culture sites, the COVID19 crisis opened a huge chasm beneath our feet. This funding will bridge that gap, supporting us as we move through the current challenges towards the opening of our new gallery later in 2021. We’re incredibly grateful to the Cultural Recovery Fund for Heritage for being there for us at this difficult time.

Revd Peter Holwell, Minister & Team Leader, Trinity Church Gosforth, said:

Trinity Church Gosforth, is a vibrant faith and community space, hosting 100 community groups and 2500 people weekly, along with a membership of 250. Despite a fall in income since March, it has still donated £9,000 to local charities this year. The Culture Recovery Fund for Heritage grant supports the shortfall in finances, protects jobs, and helps us to continue to serve our local faith community and the people of Gosforth.

Mike Kelly, Chairman, East Lancashire Railway, said:

We’re immensely proud of the timeless experience the East Lancashire Railway provides for hundreds of thousands of visitors a year – thanks to the dedication of our volunteers and staff. However, the coronavirus outbreak has plunged our entire, long-term future into jeopardy.

This year alone we have been forced to make redundancies and we’re now facing a cliff-edge scenario with a 50 per cent drop in revenues, resulting in an historical six-figure loss, alongside a projected 50 per cent decline in revenues for 2021.

As a charitable organisation, we are left in a perilous position as we wrestle with these unprecedented financial and operational challenges. The loss of the ELR to the North West and the wider Heritage Transport family would be catastrophic on any level, which is why we’re so incredibly grateful for the financial award from the Culture Recovery Fund for Heritage.

Right now, with the railway again forced to close, it feels like the Culture Recovery Fund is the cavalry coming over the hill to save us. This incredible level of support helps cover our wages and operational costs for a precious few months and gives us an important breathing space to try and rebuild the railway’s finances.

The lifeline also helps us to keep running services and ensures the railway remains Covid-secure so that we can preserve this unique heritage experience for our many thousands of visitors of all ages and secure an enduring legacy for future generations to come.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson has appointed the former Secretary of State for International Development, Anne-Marie Trevelyan MP, as the UK’s International Champion on Adaptation and Resilience for the COP26 Presidency.

With one year to go until COP26 is held in Glasgow, the role of the Champion will be to drive forward global ambition and action to support countries on the frontline of climate change to adapt to its impacts and build resilience.

Developing countries are particularly vulnerable to climate change and are less able to prepare for and respond to the impacts of rising global temperatures, such as extreme weather events like floods, drought and wildfires and slow onset crises like rising sea levels and desertification. Without action, the World Bank predicts climate change could push more than 100 million people in developing countries below the poverty line by 2030.

However, with support, countries and communities can adapt and build resilience to the impacts of climate change. Measures like early warning systems for storms, investing in flood drainage and drought resistant crops are extremely cost-effective, saving not just money, but lives and livelihoods. In Bangladesh, for example, with the support of the UK and others on disaster risk reduction the mortality rate from cyclones has been cut more than 100-fold – from 500,000 deaths in 1970 to 4,234 in 2007.

In her role as Adaptation and Resilience Champion, Anne-Marie Trevelyan will engage the governments of the countries most affected by climate change and drive support from the international community and private sector.

The UK is stepping up global leadership in tackling climate change with one year to go until COP26, the UN climate change conference, and ahead of the Climate Ambition Summit on 12 December 2020. The Climate Ambition Summit is hosted by the UK, UN and France, alongside partners Italy and Chile, to mark the fifth anniversary of the landmark Paris Agreement and will be an opportunity for world leaders to make ambitious climate commitments.

Building international momentum to support countries and communities already impacted by climate change and futureproofing growth and development is crucial to delivering our shared climate goals at COP26 and beyond.

Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said:

Climate change is already affecting people all over the world and COVID-19 has reinforced the importance of investing in resilience, now more than ever.

The Prime Minister’s appointment of Anne-Marie Trevelyan as Adaptation and Resilience Champion will boost our ability to deliver our commitment to support those most vulnerable to climate change.

COP26 President Alok Sharma said:

I warmly welcome Anne-Marie Trevelyan to the role of Adaptation and Resilience Champion as we mark the crucial milestone of a year to go until COP26.

Her wealth of insight into international development will be invaluable in putting adaptation and resilience at the heart of our efforts to create a fairer, greener and more resilient global economy.

The UK’s International Champion on Adaptation and Resilience for the COP26 Presidency Anne-Marie Trevelyan said:

I am delighted to have been appointed Adaptation and Resilience Champion. It is vital the UK’s COP Presidency shows the world we are listening to the voices of those most impacted by climate change and that we will lead global action to address their concerns, from loss and damage, to access to finance.

I look forward to working with our partners across the globe to represent and drive our high ambitions on the adaptation and resilience agenda.

Emma Howard Boyd, Chair of the Environment Agency and UK Commissioner to the Global Commission on Adaptation said:

The effects of climate change, such as droughts and floods, are impacting vulnerable communities across the world. As UK Commissioner to the Global Commission on Adaptation, we have been calling on the international community to do more to help people build resilience and adapt to the changing climate. I am delighted Anne-Marie has been appointed to raise global ambition at COP26.

The British Embassy Montevideo, embracing the United Nations “Climate Neutral Now” initiative, has become the first embassy in the world to obtain international Carbon Neutral certification.

The 2015 initiative was launched to encourage everyone in society to take action to help achieve a zero emissions world by 2050, as enshrined in the Paris Agreement.

In order to achieve zero emissions, three steps have to be followed: i) measure emissions, known as carbon footprints ii) reduce them as much as possible, and iii) compensate where there are any emissions that cannot be avoided. With the support of One Carbon World (OCW), the Embassy can confirm it has reached net zero emissions.

All electricity, heating and water emissions from both the Embassy and the British residence were measured in 2019. An action plan was drawn up, and measures were taken to reduce emissions. Where identified emissions were not possible to avoid the Embassy, through OCW, has compensated for its remaining emissions.

Ambassador Faye O’Connor said, “Every action counts. I am very proud that my team has achieved the success of being the first embassy worldwide to reach net zero emissions and am very grateful to One Carbon World for their support. But it is important to do more – my ambition is to try to be the first embassy to truly achieve zero emissions. This implies that every year we are going to adopt new measures to compensate less. That is why I am looking for an electric car for personal use, and we are going to use official electric cars as soon as possible. We are also going to install more solar panels to heat my residence and the Embassy using renewable energy.”

For several years, the Embassy has been working to reduce its environmental impact. Some of the measures adopted include the installation and use of solar panels to heat water used in the residence, the elimination of single-use plastics, recycling, the creation of an organic garden and window isolation to avoid air leakage.

Carbon credits, obtained through OCW, support a Uruguayan reforestation project of 22,000 hectares of trees,, called Guanaré, in the department of Treinta y Tres, which is verified by the Rainforest Alliance.

Guanaré has both environmental and social benefits, including a program in which students and members of the community are taught to care for the native flora and fauna as well as to protect the environment. The project has created more than 260 jobs, supported more than 70 farmers, contributed to the reduction of poverty in rural areas, and provided materials and human resources to rural schools.

Andrew Bowen, CEO of One Carbon World, said, “As the first Embassy in the world to achieve this, we are confident that this action will inspire other embassies to take action to become carbon neutral in the near future.”

Niclas Svenningsen, Manager for the Global Climate Action, UN Climate Change, said, “Embassies, being the face and voice of governments in other countries, have good reasons to showcase the best of what they represent and inspire others by their own actions. With climate change being the defining issue for the future of the planet, showing leadership in taking climate action in all aspects of work is essential. For this reason, we are glad to count the British Embassy in Montevideo, Uruguay, as a participant in our Climate Neutral Now initiative and look forward to continued participation as we all strive to achieve a net zero society.”

The embassy has carried out several environmental campaigns promoted by the British government and, in particular, by the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO). These include the Beyond Plastic campaign, which aimed to reduce the use of non-reusable plastics, as well as a joint campaign with Uruguay’s Ministry of Housing, Land Planning and Environment of Uruguay to promote the use of reusable shopping bags.

The Ambassador highlighted that a key factor in the Embassy further reduction of emissions is in large part thanks to Uruguay’s investment in the use of renewable energy. “Last year 98% of Uruguay’s electricity came from renewable sources. This is impressive. My government congratulates Uruguay for its leadership and for the creation of the Ministry of Environment to promote increasingly green public policies. It is crucial that we arrive at the United Nations climate change conference in Glasgow in 2021 showing that we can implement the changes necessary to ensure the safety and prosperity of future generations. I am fully committed to helping and supporting our Uruguayan stakeholders in further accelerating their transition to a more sustainable and modern economy,” said Ambassador O’Connor.

British Embassy Montevideo – Zero Emissions Press Release, Spanish (PDF, 538KB, 2 pages)