The Federation of Small Businesses has welcomed the extra government support for businesses and the self employed just announced.

Both the wage subsidy scheme for furloughed staff and grants to cover lost income for the self-employed have been extended for the coming months.

Federation of Small Business chairman Mike Cherry said:

“Our five million-strong self-employed community will be greatly relieved to know that the income cliff-edge they were facing in two days’ time has now been removed.

"The hope is that more and more sole traders will be able to return to work safely as restrictions are eased.

"Policymakers have rightly recognised that self-employed business owners working in a lot of sectors - not least hair & beauty, events and travel - will be massively impacted by the current downturn for many weeks to come."

There's a question from a member of the public about support for women returning to work.

Chancellor Rishi Sunak says the "safety net" for benefits has been made more generous.

He also says parents will be helped by plans to help children go back to school in England from next week.

Image source, UK government

NHS England's medical director Stephen Powis gives some details on public observance of lockdown rules and guidance from an official survey.

He says 29% of people are using a face covering outside their home, while 39% of working adults are working from home.

Unveiling the slide, below, he says that despite an increase in testing, new cases are continuing to decline.

Image source, UK government

Kevin Peachey
Personal finance reporter

The extension of the support scheme for the self-employed will be welcomed by those unsure of what happens next.

There was concern that, after the weekend, the support would have effectively run out for this group.

But while some will be grateful for the taxable grant in August, others will be annoyed they still do not qualify.

They include self-employed company directors who pay themselves in dividends, and those who have become self-employed since April 2019.

The chancellor has just said there is still “wide-ranging” support for those ineligible for the grants.

Chancellor Rishi Sunak has said self-employed workers across the UK will be able to access a second lump sum of cash from the government to cover lost income while the country is in lockdown.

The grants paid out by the Self-Employment Income Support Scheme (SEISS) will be worth 70% of a self-employed person's average monthly trading profits to cover three months' worth of income.

They are capped at £6,570.

The scheme so far has been used by 2.6 million people and has paid out £6.8bn in claims to self-employed who have been affected by the impact of coronavirus on the economy.

This is the second and final time grants will be offered, the chancellor has said.

Mr Sunak offered the first grant to the self-employed in March, paying 80% of average monthly trading profits, capped at £7,500.

Kevin Peachey
Personal finance reporter

The chancellor has given ground in some areas, but not in others.

On the request of business groups and unions, the allowance for people to be furloughed part-time from July has come a month earlier than originally planned.

However, there is no plan to separate the furlough scheme by sector.

That will be a particular concern for those in the hospitality industry who fear their emergence from lockdown will be considerably longer than other sectors, such as manufacturing.

Chancellor Rishi Sunak has outlined details of the extension to the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme.

The scheme currently allows businesses to keep salaried staff contractually employed, but not working, while the government pays 80% of their incomes. The plan was put into place in March to keep workers at home and stave off a raft of redundancies as the economy ground to a halt.

Sunak has said furloughed staff will be able to work part-time in their old roles from July. Individual firms will decide the hours their employees will work on their return.

As indicated earlier this month, the subsidy will taper off from August, with businesses expected to pay a greater share of their staff salaries, starting with covering National Insurance and pension contributions.

From September the government will cover only 70% of salaries, to a cap of £2,190 and from October it will pay 60%, to a cap of £1,875. Employers will make up the shortfall to get salaries back to 80% of pre-Covid lockdown levels.

Chancellor Rishi Sunak has said shops and factories "will start to hum" in the coming months, but the government's wage support schemes will need to be tapered off.

The chancellor says that more than one million jobs and businesses have been supported by the government as coronavirus hit the economy.

"As we reopen the economy, there is broad consensus... that the furlough scheme cannot continue indefinitely."

Businesses will have to contribute "a modest" amount from August.

Chancellor Rishi Sunak has emerged and today’s Downing Street briefing is under way.

He says there have been an additional 324 deaths in the UK following a positive coronavirus test, taking the total to 38,161.

Image source, PA Media

An "ill-advised" policy that prevents thousands of migrants living in the UK from accessing state benefits - despite paying taxes - should be scrapped, an independent humanitarian charity has said.

Migrants who have been given the no recourse to public funds [NRPF] status are not eligible for many state benefits.

But Prime Minister Boris Johnson hinted that the government would review rules after hearing from an MP the story of a family where the husband had not been put on the job retention scheme and, although the wife was still working, her income was less than household rent - and the family had no recourse to public funds.

"Our staff have seen and heard first-hand the devastating impact of this ill-advised policy," said Doctors of the World's UK policy and advocacy manager, Anna Miller.

"Many people in excluded migrant groups live hand-to-mouth as a result of the NRPF condition, despite having the legal right to live and work in the UK and contributing to the very taxpayer-funded benefits programmes they are prohibited from accessing," she said.

We will be hearing from the UK government shortly with its daily briefing on coronavirus.

We’re expecting Chancellor Rishi Sunak to set out further details of the UK’s job retention scheme, which is currently subsidising the wages of some 8.4 million employees.

The government is currently paying 80% of workers' salaries up to £2,500 a month - you can find out more here.

Environment Secretary George Eustice has been explaining why lockdown rules have been relaxed to allow people to visit another household in a garden or outside space.

"We think six [people] is a sensible number," he tells the BBC. Watch what he had to say about "what people want to do the most".

Image source, Getty Images

We should be hearing from the UK government around 30 minutes, but if you’re just joining us, here’s a round-up of the latest developments in the country:

• Up to eight people from two households can now meet outside in Scotland, as the country eases its lockdown
• In Wales, it has been confirmed that people from two different households will be able to meet outdoors from Monday
• Latest figures show police in England and Wales have issued nearly 17,000 fines for alleged breaches of lockdown rules
• The first hospital dedicated to helping patients recover from the long-term effects of coronavirus has received its first patients

Image source, Conejo Open Space Conservation Agency

A popular waterfall hiking trail in Ventura County, California, has been forced to close again only two weeks after the park was given the green light from health officials to reopen.

The new closure of Wildwood Park and Paradise Falls is due to litter and human waste from "unprecedented crowds that behaved differently than they have in the past”, according to a statement from park officials.

The statement blamed the record crowds for violating the "sense of shared responsibility that makes safe park management and protection of the environment feasible".

"Then there were problems with human waste and sanitation as many used areas along the creek both upstream and downstream as a toilet, and wetland vegetation was trampled,” the release adds.

Image source, Conejo Open Space Conservation Agency

Image source, Getty Images

Image source, .

Lockdown measures in the UK are starting to be eased after more than two months of restrictions - but the rules for Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland are set by each national government.

The graphic above explains how many people you can meet up with, at what distance, where and from when.

Image source, AFP

Spain’s left-wing government has approved a flagship plan to pay the poorest households in the country a basic income of €462 (£410; $514) a month.

Larger households with receive a bigger monthly payment, up to a maximum of about €990 for households of five or more.

The scheme, which will be rolled out nationally, was fast-tracked due to the economic difficulties brought on by the pandemic.

It is thought that some 850,000 people will qualify, including migrants who have lived in Spain for more than a year. It is set to cost the government about €3bn a year.

"We'll be successful if we are able to help the identified households to transition to a better place in society," Social Security Minister Jose Luis Escriva told a briefing earlier today.

Spain is among the European countries hit hardest by the pandemic.

It has just been confirmed that the UK government will give its daily briefing at 17:00 BST (16:00 GMT).

The briefing will be led by Chancellor Rishi Sunak.

He will be joined by Prof Stephen Powis, NHS England medical director.

Image source, Family Handout

No further action will be taken in relation to the death of a railway worker following an incident at Victoria station in London following "extensive enquiries" by detectives, British Transport Police said.

Belly Mujinga, 47, was working at the station in March when she was spat at by a man claiming to have Covid-19 on 21 March. She died with coronavirus on 5 April.

Mujinga, mother to an 11-year-old daughter, was said to have told her bosses at Govia Thameslink Railway (GTR) about the attack, but police were not called at the time.

A police investigation was launched more than a month after Mujinga was attacked. A 57-year-old man was interviewed in connection with the incident.

"Following a review of all the information, senior detectives have concluded that there is no evidence to substantiate any criminal offences having taken place, and that the tragic death of Belly Mujinga was not a consequence of this incident," said a British Transport Police statement.

"As a result, the matter will not be referred to the Crown Prosecution Service.

"No further action will be taken against a 57-year-old man from London who was interviewed in connection with this matter."

Image source, PA Media

Internet issues are the scourge and fear of millions of people who have been working from home during the coronavirus pandemic.

And many in the UK were left frustrated on Friday morning when their TalkTalk connection went down, for more than an hour in some cases.

Customers from all over the country - including London, Stockport, Wrexham and Brighton - complained to the firm, who said the problem was fixed about 11:30 BST.

No reason for the outage has been given.

Image source, Getty Images

Greece is to open its doors to visitors from 29 countries from 15 June as it tries to relaunch its vital tourism industry.

However those countries do not include the UK, Italy, Spain and France - which have been badly hit by the pandemic.

The countries are: Germany, Austria, Denmark, Norway, Cyprus, Israel, Switzerland, Japan, Malta, Bulgaria, China, Croatia, Australia, New Zealand, North Macedonia, Albania, Estonia, Latvia, Lebanon, Lithuania, Hungary, South Korea, Serbia, Montenegro, Romania, Slovenia, Slovakia, Czech Republic and Finland.

Greece imposed a strict lockdown early on in the outbreak which helped to contain the numbers of infections and deaths to relatively low levels. Since easing restrictions it has put tourism - vital to its economy - at the centre of its plans.

• Read more: Greece and Croatia take action to save the summer