4. Statement by the Minister for Economy, Transport and North Wales: Coronavirus (COVID-19)

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 3:24 pm on 17 March 2020.

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Photo of Angela Burns Angela Burns Conservative 3:24, 17 March 2020

Thank you. I absolutely promise you I've got one area that I particularly want to talk to you about, which is business interruption insurance. I've been contacted by a significant number of businesses who are finding it very difficult to get insurers to do two things: (1) to understand that COVID-19 is a notifiable disease. Now, you and I know that under the Health Protection (Notification) (Wales) (Amendment) Regulations 2020, it was made a notifiable disease on the fifth, and all the other home nations followed around by about the 5 or 6 March, and yet it's very difficult (1) for the businesses to find anywhere on any website—yours, the UK Government's, anybody's—that it is a notifiable disease, and (2) to get the insurance companies to recognise it's a notifiable disease. That's my first insurance question, and I know you're meeting the banks, and I wondered if you might be meeting the insurers.

My second insurance question, which, again, is very similar, is about the business interruption insurance. Again, businesses are saying to me that, for example, if somebody turns up at their hotel and they are diagnosed with COVID-19, then they will get paid, but if they cancel that hotel room, there's no business interruption insurance. Again, the insurers are playing real hardball. Minister, I wonder what you, in conjunction with the other home nations, might be able to do with insurance companies, so that business interruption insurance can apply to this kind of area.