Llywydd, coronavirus is both a public health crisis and an economic crisis. The Ministers primarily responsible for these two portfolio areas will make statements this afternoon about the actions the Welsh Government is taking in response to the virus. There are very few areas of public life that have not been touched by coronavirus, and this afternoon, I will focus on the measures we are taking across other portfolios.

Llywydd, many aspects of housing have been affected, from concerns about people with no home to live in, to people travelling into Wales to their second homes. Since the Senedd last met, we have provided comprehensive advice about the support available for tenants in Wales, including information about benefits, help with rent, bill payments and debt. We’ve provided information to landlords and agents in the private rented sector and guidance to local authorities about how they can continue to enforce standards in rented properties to keep people safe.

We continue to receive weekly reports from chief constables across Wales on the enforcement of regulations. Let me be clear again: travelling to a second home is not an essential journey, and police in Wales are and will stop people attempting to do so.

In social care, we have provided an extra £40 million to support adult social care services to meet the increased costs that the sector is facing. This funding comes directly from our own budget and is part of the £1.1 billion fighting fund we have created to support public services to respond to coronavirus.

I know that many Members have raised concerns about people who have opted for direct payments and employ their own personal assistants, and since the Senedd last met, we have provided specific information for people in that position. Social Care Wales has launched a card for all social care workers to help identify them as critical care workers, and so to access the help and assistance available to them.

Llywydd, education and childcare have been hugely impacted by the virus. We have issued guidance to critical care workers and parents of vulnerable children about how they can get the help that they need in the current circumstances, and we are implementing the extended childcare offer for children of key workers announced by Julie Morgan on 6 April. For many young people, this is a time of distress and anxiety. The Minister for Education, Kirsty Williams, has announced £1.25 million of additional funding to provide extra mental health support for children, helping school counselling services to deal with an anticipated increase in demand. The Minister has also confirmed that A-level and AS-levels results day will be as originally scheduled on 13 August, and on 20 August for GCSEs—the same dates, therefore, as will obtain in both Northern Ireland and England. 

Yesterday, Llywydd, Wales became the first UK nation to confirm additional funding to guarantee free school meals for children during the pandemic. Thirty three million pounds will be made available as additional help to local authorities in this vital area.

Two weeks ago, the Minister for Environment, Energy and Rural Affairs, Lesley Griffiths, answered questions in the Senedd. She has continued to meet with industry representatives from Wales’s farming, fishing, forestry, environment and food and drink sectors to discuss their specific challenges. A new grant is now available to support fishing businesses to cover the fixed costs associated with owning a fishing vessel, and the Welsh Government has launched a bespoke online service to match employers with people looking for work in the agriculture, land or veterinary sectors. That service will help to fill vacancies in the coming months, addressing labour shortages caused by the virus outbreak.

Llywydd, I’d like to end by turning to the future. Last Thursday, the four Governments of the United Kingdom agreed that the current stay-at-home restrictions must continue for at least a further three weeks. Now is not the moment to throw away all the efforts we have made, especially as there are signs of them beginning to bear fruit. But it is really important to stress that the threat from coronavirus is far from over. Sadly, lives will still be lost in the days to come, and I know that all Members will want to pause a moment to remember the 600 people and more who are no longer with us and the grief and distress that this continues to cause to those who are closest to them.

Now, any decision to ease restrictions will only be made when the medical and scientific evidence is clear that the time is right to do so. The process in Wales will be careful, cautious and gradual. There can be no sudden return to the way of life we enjoyed before the pandemic began. And Llywydd, when I made my first statement to the Senedd under our new arrangements, we still faced the realistic anxiety that coronavirus might accelerate its spread in Wales to a point when our NHS could have been overwhelmed. That this has not happened is a tribute to the enormous work that has gone on in such a rapid period to extend the capacity of the service and the efforts that Welsh citizens have made to reduce the circulation of the virus in the community. Today, the number of patients in Welsh hospitals because of coronavirus has stabled and the number of new admissions is falling. Over half our extended critical care capacity is still available. More than 3,000 acute hospital beds are in the same position, and both figures have improved again over the last few days. It is because of that platform that has been created that we can now use the weeks ahead to prepare; to agree a common set of objective measures to identify the point at which it is safe to begin lifting restrictions. These measures will tell us when the time is right to move beyond the current position.

There will be a risk that the virus will begin to circulate again. We need to set out strong public health surveillance measures so that if there are local outbreaks, we can identify them quickly and respond effectively. In Wales, we have retained a national public health service with a strong local presence and we must use this as the basis of our response. We must also learn from international experience. There are already countries in Europe and beyond where restrictions are being lifted. We will use the next few weeks to learn from what works and what might not work elsewhere in the world.

Llywydd, finally, we will also use that period to plan for Wales's future beyond coronavirus by drawing in expertise and experience from outside Government. We will establish a group of people from inside Wales and beyond to challenge our thinking, to contribute new ideas, and so to help us plan for recovery. We have put our framework for doing so in place and I look forward to discussing that plan and that path to the future with the Senedd in the weeks ahead.