Take cover

The government has said it will make wearing masks compulsory in shops. Mandatory masks rather run against the general trend in legislation in many countries, with face coverings increasingly banned. In Britain last year a man was fined £90 for covering his face while walking past a police facial recognition camera. Hong Kong banned masks in October to try to stifle student protests. France, Belgium, Denmark and Austria have all passed laws against face coverings in public over the past decade. In Canada since 2013, rioters who cover their faces have risked ten years in jail. In the US, many states have enacted laws on facial coverings dating from 1845 to deal with bandits.

Prison visitors

The Home Secretary, Priti Patel, said EU citizens who have been jailed for more than a year will be banned from Britain. How many EU citizens are in jail in England and Wales (on 31 March this year)?

Polish | 835

Romanian | 806

Irish | 721

Lithuanian | 414

Portuguese | 234

The rest of the top ten nationalities represented in our prison system and non-EU: Albanian (999), Jamaican (440), Somalian (288), Pakistani (272) and Nigerian (218).

What a kicking

Wigan beat Hull 8-0 in a Championship football match. What is the highest margin of victory in a professional football match in Britain?

— In the 30-year history of the Premiership two matches have ended 9-0 — Manchester United beat Ipswich by that margin in 1995 and Leicester beat Southampton 9-0 last year.

—The losing goalies can be relieved, however, that they didn’t go the way of Scottish football team Bon Accord, which was defeated 36-0 in a cup game in 1885.

Off the rails

The artist known as Banksy is believed to have posed as a cleaner to spray-paint one of his works inside a tube carriage. How much does graffiti cost the railways?

— Network Rail claims to spend £5 million a year removing graffiti from stations and other railway property.

— London Underground says it spends £10 million and 70,000 man-hours.

— London Underground says it would cost £38 million to replace every Tube carriage window which has been etched with graffiti.