The Government has updated details of its Events Research Programme, which will include a 5,000-capacity festival pilot event organised by Festival Republic on 2 May.

It said the findings will be reported to the prime minister to feed into wider discussions around Step 4 of the lockdown restrictions, which suggests results and required mitigation measures will not be known until on or near 21 June. However, while speaking at a session of the DCMS Committee’s The Future of UK Music Festivals inquiry culture minister Caroline Dinenage said the results of the ERP pilot events for the festival sector would be published in May.

She said, “We will ensure that the results gathered from research programmes are fed into policy development swiftly to ensure data is used to inform decisions around further reopening.”

Among the key updates are that the programme is being overseen by an industry-led steering group co-chaired by Sir Nicholas Hytner and David Ross, who are working closely with national and local public health authorities.

Government said the board will consider the evidence from the 10-15 pilot events and make recommendations to the prime minister and the secretaries of state for the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, and Department of Health and Social Care on how restrictions could be safely lifted at Stage 4 of the reopening roadmap.

It said the governance structure will also include an independently chaired Science Board, which will bring together clinical and scientific experts. The Science Board is chaired by independent scientist Dame Theresa Marteau, and is made up of relevant cross-Government chief scientific advisors, led by Tom Rodden (DCMS CSA) and Paul Monks (BEIS CSA).

To gain entry to the events there will be no requirement for participants to show proof of vaccine. Participants in the ERP pilots published to date will have to provide a basic certification that they have tested negative for Covid-19.

Full details of the updates are available here.