The UK¡¯s meetings and events industry has called for targeted government support in the wake of prime minister Boris Johnson¡¯s announcement that Plan B measures for England ¨C including advice to work from home ¨C would be implemented to prevent the spread of the Omicron Covid-19 variant.

In addition to working from home, Plan B includes the reintroduction of mandates around the wearing of face masks in all indoor public places, as well as the implementation of ¡°Covid passports¡± whereby anyone trying to gain entry to certain venues will need to have an NHS Covid Pass to prove they are either fully vaccinated, have had a negative PCR or lateral flow test result in the past 48 hours, or have tested positive for Covid in the past six months and have completed a period of self-isolation.

The Covid pass rule will apply to the following venues from 15 December, subject to parliamentary approval:

• Nightclubs
• Unseated indoor venues with more than 500 people
• Unseated outdoor venues with more than 4,000 people
• Any venue with more than 10,000 people.

Covid passes have already been in use in Wales and Scotland for weeks, but the Night Time Industries Association said this has caused a reduction in attendance at nightclubs.

Restaurants and other hospitality venues have been reporting numerous cancellations for company Christmas parties since news of Omicron first emerged at the end of November, according to the BBC.

Hospitality association the HBAA ¨C soon to be renamed beam ¨C had already called on the UK government to include targeted financial measures in the autumn budget statement to support the hospitality industry through the winter should restrictions come back into play. It requested an extension to the temporary reduction in VAT paid by the sector beyond April 2022, as well as an extension of the Kick Start scheme, which provided funding for the creation of new jobs for 16 to 24-year-olds. It also urged chancellor Rishi Sunak to bring back the government-funded furlough scheme to help the industry save jobs.

The association¡¯s consultant executive director Juliet Price has renewed those calls, saying: ¡°Business events and hospitality now need this support immediately to prevent newly created jobs from being lost again.

¡°There are already clear signs of another knock back to event planner confidence in booking and running live events. Now that the instruction to work from home again and compulsory mask wearing are being reintroduced widely, we know from bitter experience in early 2020 that the sector will immediately suffer more substantial financial issues and jobs will come under threat. Live events will quickly become commercially less viable and more likely to return to virtual or are cancelled.

¡°With the onus on whether to continue with events now with the corporate client, they face cancellation charges ¨C but without event insurance to cover them.¡±

Price warned that the challenges presented by the introduction of Plan B measures will cause a knock-on effect that will be felt ¡°well into 2022¡±. ¡°A knock-back like this would be a disaster for the hundreds of agencies, venues and service providers who are just starting to recover after struggling to survive over the last 18 months,¡± she added.

Meanwhile, the Meetings Industry Association (MIA) said it would continue to monitor the situation among its members. CEO Kerrin MacPhie said: ¡°Based on the latest scientific data, we understand that the Plan B restrictions will need to be put in place to help reduce the transmission of the Omicron variant of Covid-19.

¡°However, this will have a devastating impact on business meetings and events. We know from some initial research conducted just last week [that] Omicron has already had an immediate impact on client confidence and future bookings.¡±