social impact of the covid-19 pandemic in the united kingdom social impact of the covid-19 pandemic in the united kingdom the covid-19 pandemic in the united kingdom has had far-reaching consequences in the country that go beyond the spread of the disease itself and efforts to quarantine it, including political, cultural, and social implications. national covid memorial wall in london. part of a series on thecovid-19 pandemicscientifically accurate atomic model of the external structure of sars-cov-2. each "ball" is an atom. covid-19 (disease) sars-cov-2 (virus) cases deaths timeline 2019 2020 january responses february responses march responses april responses may responses june responses july responses august responses september responses october responses november responses december responses 2021 january responses february responses march responses april responses may responses june responses july responses august responses september responses october responses november responses 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environment hospitals language lgbt community long-term care media coverage mental health symptoms migration military notable deaths other health issues politics diplomacy popular culture protests pregnancy prisons religion catholic church hajj science and technology social media strikes suicides telehealth xenophobia and racism society ireland malaysia new zealand russia uk us covid-19 portal part of a series on thecovid-19 pandemicin the united kingdom, british overseas territories and crown dependencies history responses legislation statistics (part of the global covid-19 pandemic) locations london countries england scotland wales northern ireland crown dependencies guernsey isle of man jersey british overseas territories anguilla akrotiri and dhekelia bermuda british indian ocean territory british virgin islands cayman islands falkland islands gibraltar montserrat saint helena, ascension and tristan da cunha turks and caicos islands pitcairn islands british overseas territories without confirmed cases british antarctic territory south georgia and the south sandwich islands timelines united kingdom january-june 2020 july–december 2020 january-june 2021 july–december 2021 january-june 2022 july-december 2022 2023 england january-june 2020 july–december 2020 2021 2022 scotland 2020 2021 2022 wales 2020 2021 2022 northern ireland 2020 2021 2022 key topics healthcare vaccination temporary hospitals covid passports responses government response contract controversies lockdown public inquiry contact tracing military (domestic, overseas) impacts society economy education politics retail covid-19 portal category arts and entertainment music the "wee annie" statue in gourock with a face mask, on 22 march on 13 march, bbc radio 1 cancelled its big weekend music festival, scheduled to take place at the end of may. other music events to be cancelled included the c2c: country to country festival, the glastonbury festival, the isle of wight and download music festivals, the cambridge folk festival, and the love supreme jazz festival. the organisers of the download festival announced plans to hold a virtual festival instead, featuring streamed performances and interviews. big weekend organisers ran an alternative event, big weekend uk 2020, with musicians performing from their homes and on virtual stages, and performances from previous big weekend events. among the artists and bands to postpone or cancel uk gigs or tours were avril lavigne and the who. other, including chris martin of coldplay, and yungblud live-streamed performances on social media. various musicians announced free gigs for nhs staff. even with the united kingdom beginning to lift the majority of restrictions by late-june 2021, and the government organizing concerts as part of the event research programme to examine the impact of large-scale events with fewer precautions, a large number of british music festivals nonetheless announced that they would also cancel their 2021 editions, including arctangent, bluedot, boomtown, ramblin' man fair, and two thousand trees festival, due to the british government not providing an insurance scheme for such events that would cover losses in the event that they are cancelled for covid-19-related reasons. some are also citing travel restrictions that make it difficult to host international performers and attendees. the digital, culture, media and sport committee (dcms) stated on 13 may that it "cannot give full assurance" on such schemes until the guidance for the next stage of its regulations are created. visual arts a number of artists began painting portraits of nhs workers, as a way of organising their work and thanking them for it. an exhibition is planned, once the pandemic subsides. theatre and cinema on 15 march, london's old vic became the first west end theatre to cancel a performance when it ended its run of samuel beckett's endgame two weeks early. on 16 march, other theatres in london, as well as elsewhere around the uk, closed following boris johnson's advice that people should avoid such venues. on 17 march, cinema chains odeon, cineworld, vue and picturehouse announced they would be closing all their uk outlets. on 1 april, the 2020 edinburgh festivals, planned for august, were cancelled. on 26 march the national theatre launched national theatre at home, a two-month programme whereby a different production from its archives would be streamed for free each week. the project began with richard bean's comedy one man, two guvnors, featuring james corden. television and radio television programmes to be affected included forthcoming series of peaky blinders and line of duty, which had their filming schedules delayed. on 13 march, itv announced that the 2020 series finale of ant & dec's saturday night takeaway, scheduled to be broadcast from walt disney world in florida would no longer go ahead after the resort announced its intention to close as a precautionary measure. on 16 march, itv announced that the filming schedule for its two soaps, coronation street and emmerdale had not been affected by the pandemic, but filming ceased on 23 march. on 18 march itv announced the semi-final of the ninth series of the voice uk, scheduled for 28 march, would be postponed until later in the year. on 16 march, the bbc delayed implementation of its planned changes to tv licences for those aged over 75 from june to august. on 25 march the bbc also announced that it would delay its plans to cut 450 news jobs due to the pressure of covering the pandemic. on 17 march, the bbc announced major changes to the schedule across the network. while some programmes were suspended, others such as newsnight and the andrew marr show continued with a smaller number of production staff. some podcasts were also suspended. on 18 march it was announced that filming of soap operas and regular dramas would be suspended. the bbc also said it would show more educational programmes to cater for children not attending school, and more programmes focused on health, fitness, education, religion and food recipes. on 23 march, itv ceased the live broadcasting of two programmes. on radio, some bbc world service programmes were suspended. summaries on radio 2, radio 3, radio 4 and 5 live were merged into a single output, with bbc 6 using the same script. the bbc asian network and newsbeat worked together to maintain production of stories. on 18 march, the bbc announced that its local radio stations in england would broadcast a virtual church service, led initially by the archbishop of canterbury, but with plans to expand religious services to cover other faiths. on the same day radio news hub, a radio news bulletin provider based in leeds, announced that it would produce a daily ten-minute programme giving a round-up of information about the pandemic, and that would be made available free of charge to radio stations. on 28 march, bbc local radio announced that it had teamed up with manufacturers, retailers and the social isolation charity wavelength to give away free dab radios to people over 70. museums as of august 2021, the pandemic led to 4,700 redundancies across the museum sector. defence main articles: operation rescript and operation broadshare the coronavirus pandemic affected british military deployments at home and abroad. training exercises, including those in canada and kenya, had to be cancelled to free up personnel for the covid support force. the british training mission in iraq, part of operation shader, had to be down-scaled. an air base supporting this military operation also confirmed nine cases of coronavirus. the british army paused face-to-face recruitment and basic training operations, instead conducting them virtually. training locations, such as royal military academy sandhurst and hms raleigh, had to adapt their passing out parades. cadets involved were made to stand 2 metres (6 ft 7 in) apart in combat dress and there were no spectators in the grandstands. ceremonial duties and displays were stopped. the british army deployed two experts to nato to help counter disinformation around the pandemic. the government's defence and security review, named the integrated review, was delayed. in march 2020, following requests for military aid to the civil authorities, the ministry of defence announced the formation of the covid support force under the standing joint commander (uk), lieutenant general tyrone urch at aldershot to support public services and civil authorities in tackling the pandemic. unlike the police and some other civil agencies, members of the armed forces (during peacetime) have no powers over and above those of ordinary citizens. the support force initially consisted of 20,000 personnel but later grew to amount to 23,000. two military operations; operation rescript, based in the uk, and operation broadshare, focused on overseas defence activities, were launched. chief of the defence staff nick carter ordered the military to prepare for a "six month" operation and to be on an "operational footing" by mid-april. the covid support force was initially tasked with driving oxygen tankers for the nhs, as well as delivering medical supplies, including ppe, to hospitals. prior to the announcement of the covid support force, the armed forces had assisted the british government in repatriating british citizens from affected areas, including china and japan. the royal air force also repatriated british and eu citizens from cuba. the armed forces additionally assisted in the transportation of coronavirus patients around the uk, including shetland and the isles of scilly. on 23 march 2020, joint helicopter command began assisting the coronavirus relief effort by transporting people and supplies. helicopters were based at raf leeming to cover northern england and scotland, whilst helicopters based at raf benson, raf odiham and rnas yeovilton supported the midlands and southern england. the armed forces helped to build temporary hospitals, testing centres and mortuaries, and supported ambulance services across the country. the covid support force had responded to 76 requests for assistance from government ministries with 2,680 personnel deployed from a total of 23,000 on standby. 2,300 vehicles were also in use as temporary ambulances and to transport personnel and supplies in 34 locations across the country. on 16 april 2020, it was reported that 9.1% of the defence workforce, representing 13,000 personnel, were off work due to coronavirus, whilst under 100 personnel had tested positive. carter described the military's assistance to the nhs as the "single greatest logistic challenge" he had come across. on 26 april 2020, forces