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

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 3:46 pm on 17 March 2020.

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Photo of Ken Skates Ken Skates Labour 3:46, 17 March 2020

Can I thank Mark Isherwood for his three questions? If he does have any more questions, please don't hesitate to write to me. Indeed, if you have any suggestions, any ideas, any observations, any intelligence, please provide me with it.

In terms of our engagement with the umbrella organisations, I've spoken quite extensively with a number of organisations, including the Confederation of British Industry, the Federation of Small Businesses, the chambers of commerce and so forth. We'll be meeting again later this week. I spoke with officials in my colleague Dafydd Elis-Thomas's department yesterday concerning the engagement that they have with the tourism sector. I was assured that there is close contact established with the tourism sector.

I have now received a number of letters and other forms of correspondence from businesses within the hospitality sector, within other key sectors of the economy that Dafydd Elis-Thomas is responsible for, and we are reflecting on those calls that are made within the correspondence in terms of how we utilise the £100 million and any additional financial resource that we'll be able to make available as a consequence of what I hope to be a very significant announcement later today by the UK Government.

Llywydd, I'll have to reflect on the point that was made in regard to the decision made by registrars, if I may, and return to the Member with some more detail on that. This is something that I think is specific to certain areas of Wales at the moment, but I'll need to check and I'll write back to the Member as soon as I possibly can.