3. Statement by the Minister for Environment, Energy and Rural Affairs: Response to Coronavirus (COVID-19)

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 3:52 pm on 8 April 2020.

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Photo of Joyce Watson Joyce Watson Labour 3:52, 8 April 2020

I'm not going to repeat all those things that people have asked, except for on footpaths. When you set out the regulation, there was also a 28-day review period. So, I ask the Minister when she is going to make an announcement, having carried out that review, because in two weeks' time that will need to be the case.

I do want to ask about how we're going to manage getting the crops in the ground, and whether you've had ongoing discussions about the workers' availability, because it's very clear that people who might find themselves out of work might welcome the opportunity to help here. Any update that you might have on that would be more than welcome.

But I also want to ask a question that has been asked, and that's about garden centres and nurseries, and, coupled with that, I suppose all the other downturns in businesses. So, there's a wider question here about how, as a Government and a business support community more generally, we're helping people not to just diversify in what they do, but to diversify in how they sell what they're doing and how we support them going forward. I think there's a clear case here for investment in whatever means those are, whether it's training, whether it's technology, or whatever it is, to help businesses who have expanded, who are operating normally through the current set-up, but need to move online to just be self-sustaining in times like this situation now, and it's very much focused our minds, I suppose, to modernise the businesses. Thank you.