Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 5:39 pm on 16 November 2016.
I’m very grateful to the Member for allowing a minute of his time. I should say for the record that I did ask at the very last minute in the day and the Member accepted if time allowed.
Can I say that I agree with virtually everything that Hefin has said? I congratulate him on being elected the chair of the cross-party group on small businesses, of which I am a member also. All I would say is that I’m very keen that the Government continues to promote young people—having a positive life option for them to enter small business themselves. When I was in school, it was very much a case of, ‘What do you want to be: doctor, nurse, teacher…?’ And when I said, ‘I want my own small business, please’, that wasn’t really accepted by the careers officer; it wasn’t on their tick box. I’m pleased that times have changed now. But I would very much like to see the Government continuing to support programmes where business leaders go into schools and promote starting your own business as a positive life opportunity for them—outlining the risks, of course, but making sure that they are aware that it is a reasonable option for them to undertake. I look forward to working with Hefin on the cross-party group on small businesses.