- Planned celebration for 6,500 people on New Year’s Eve will not take place in the interests of public safety
- A broadcast spectacular to welcome 2022 will be shown on BBC One and iPlayer
- Mayor urges Government to step forward and support the capital’s hospitality industry who are suffering from the impact of the Omicron variant
The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, has today announced that London’s New Year’s Eve celebration event in Trafalgar Square will no longer be going ahead in the interests of public safety.
The event, which was set to be open to around 6,500 key workers and members of the public, will not take place due to the surge of cases of the Omicron variant in the capital.
A live broadcast spectacular celebrating our city and highlighting the most defining moments of 2021 will still be the centrepiece of London’s New Year’s Eve celebrations. The broadcast will use state of the art technology to showcase London to the rest of the world and the unique broadcast spectacular will tell the story of the most poignant moments of the last year and look ahead to the best of the new year.
Londoners and visitors are urged to watch the spectacular show at home live on BBC One and BBC iPlayer as it will not be visible from the ground or key locations in the capital.
The Mayor declared a major incident in the capital on Saturday due to the rising cases and the impact on frontline services, with 140,942 new confirmed cases in the past seven days and a 29 per cent increase in London hospital admissions in the last week.
Sadiq is today renewing his urgent calls for the Government to step forward with a package of support for the capital’s retail, hospitality, tourism, night-time and cultural businesses that are being badly hit by the impact of the variant.
He is calling on the Government to urgently provide additional support for boroughs so they can provide discretionary grants to businesses directly affected by new guidance, for full business rates relief for retail, hospitality and leisure sectors to be reintroduced until March 2022 and for an extension of the existing VAT relief for hospitality, accommodation and certain attractions beyond March 2022.
The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, said: “With infections of COVID-19 at record levels across our city and the UK, I’m determined to work closely with partners in our city to do everything we possibly can to slow the spread of the new variant and ensure our NHS services are not overwhelmed this winter.
“This means that we will no longer be hosting a celebration event for 6,500 people on Trafalgar Square this New Year’s Eve. This will be very disappointing for many Londoners, but we must take the right steps to reduce the spread of the virus. I’m proud that we will still have an incredible broadcast spectacular to watch on our screens, which will showcase our great city to the rest of the world.
“Our world-renowned retail, hospitality, tourism, nightlife and cultural businesses are already suffering from the impact of the latest wave of COVID cases during what is usually their busiest time of the year. I continue to urge the Chancellor to step up with a package of support to help businesses through this difficult time and to ensure they will be able to survive and help drive our economy forward again next year.”
Notes to editors
The changes to London’s New Year’s Eve celebrations reflects what is happening around the world in major cities as the Omicron strain of the coronavirus continues to fuel a resurgence in Covid-19 cases worldwide:
- Rio has cancelled its world-famous New Year's Eve celebrations as the Omicron COVID variant spreads around the world.
- Paris’s traditional firework display has also been cancelled as Europe braces for tighter curbs to rein in the spread of the new strain.
- Celebrations in Times Square remain uncertain with a decision to be made in the coming days as the variant spreads in New York and city officials work to increase testing capacity amid heightened demand.
- Berlin has banned the sale of fireworks on New Year’s Eve after German lawmakers have said they did not want to risk increasing the burden on overwhelmed hospitals with injuries caused by fireworks.
+ A major incident is defined as an event or situation with a range of serious consequences which requires special arrangements to be implemented by one or more emergency responder agency.
"Emergency responder agency" describes all category one and two responders as defined in the Civil Contingencies Act (2004) and associated guidance.
A major incident is beyond the scope of business-as-usual operations, and is likely to involve serious harm, damage, disruption or risk to human life or welfare, essential services, the environment or national security.
A major incident may involve a single-agency response, although it is more likely to require a multi-agency response, which may be in the form of multi-agency support to a lead responder.
The severity of the consequences associated with a major incident are likely to constrain or complicate the ability of responders to resource and manage the incident, although a major incident is unlikely to affect all responders equally.
The decision to declare a major incident will always be a judgement made in a specific local and operational context, and there are no precise and universal thresholds or triggers. Where LRFs and responders have explored these criteria in the local context and ahead of time, decision makers will be better informed and more confident in making that judgement.
The Mayor previously declared a major incident on January 8 but was able to stand it down on February 26. Major incidents have been called previously for events including the Grenfell Tower fire in June 2017, the terror attacks at Westminster Bridge and London Bridge and the Croydon tram crash in November 2016.