The next item, therefore, is the statement by the First Minister on coronavirus, and I call on the First Minister to make that statement.

Llywydd, once again, I will update Members on the Government's response to the coronavirus crisis. We continue to work urgently to resolve the most pressing issues, including personal protective equipment for public service workers. We are working to strengthen the public health infrastructure so that we are ready for the next phase, when we can begin to relax the current restrictions.

We have published our framework so that we can share with the public how we will take decisions on the next steps to be taken. In the meantime, it's crucial that everyone continues to respect the rules, to keep themselves safe, to protect the NHS and to safeguard the most vulnerable.

Llywydd, once again this afternoon, I will update Members on the key developments in our response to the coronavirus emergency over the past week. As in previous weeks, I will focus on those matters not covered by the statements that will follow from other Ministers. 

Llywydd, yesterday, an important supply of PPE arrived at Cardiff Airport from Cambodia. It was secured through the efforts of the Welsh Government. We will share that supply with other parts of the United Kingdom if needed, as part of the mutual aid system.

Now, Llywydd, I believe the response to the coronavirus crisis demonstrates the strengths of a devolved United Kingdom. We in Wales are members of a wider collective, contributing to and drawing on shared resources, but we also act on our own initiative where our devolved powers allow us to advance Welsh interests. That's why, in addition to securing supplies elsewhere, we have focused on strengthening our domestic supply chain to help meet immediate demand and to build resilience for the future. Transcend Packaging in Ystrad Mynach, for example, has responded to the call for action and changed its processes to make a million face shields a week for the NHS in Wales. It has the capacity to double that number if needed.

And for the first time, we're close to self-sufficiency in scrubs in Wales. By the end of next week, we will be making 5,000 a week, bringing back jobs from overseas and anchoring them in our Welsh economy. We have worked with a UK company supplying the NHS with scrubs, and primarily with three Welsh businesses and social enterprises. Two of these are in north Wales and the third is in a factory we have created from scratch in Ebbw Vale, in partnership with a social enterprise, creating jobs for 50 machinists who otherwise had been long-term unemployed. 

But, Llywydd, I need to explain to Members that not every offer of help turns out to be genuine. Almost one in five of offers subsequently investigated by the experts at our own surgical materials testing laboratory in Bridgend turns out to rely on incorrect certification or to be straightforwardly fraudulent. Each one of those offers takes time and effort to investigate and is an inevitable distraction from responding to the far greater number of generous and well-intentioned possibilities. 

Sadly, this virus has been exploited by some to prey on the vulnerable. The Minister for Finance and Trefnydd published advice last week on avoiding the risks of online scams and being vigilant to the serious risks this poses to vulnerable members of our community.

Llywydd, as we attend to the urgency of the crisis, we must still find time to recognise and protect the culture and diversity of Wales. During the past week, we have continued to provide guidance and support to help deal with the implications of the virus, including £800,000 for the National Eisteddfod and Llangollen International Musical Eisteddfod. Over the last week, I have written to everyone in Wales observing Ramadan, setting out how the festival can be celebrated safely and in ways that respect the long traditions of Islam. And in an important written statement published today to mark the anniversary of the declaration of a climate emergency by this Senedd, the Minister for Environment, Energy and Rural Affairs sets out the steps we continue to take to recover loss of biodiversity and to respond to climate change in Wales.

Yesterday, as Members will know, we passed another sombre milestone as the number of deaths recorded by Public Health Wales passed 800. Each one of those deaths is an individual and a person with a grieving family and friends left behind. In recognition of the difficulties of that experience, we announced additional funding this week to support bereavement services in Wales to help them respond to the additional calls for their support.

As far as the economy is concerned, businesses across Wales will start receiving grant payments from the Welsh Government's economic resilience fund by the end of this week. Since it opened a week ago, the fund has received almost 9,000 requests for support. The scheme was paused on Monday to enable us to consider what changes can be made from that experience before we move to the next tranche.

On Friday last week, we concluded the first three-week review of the coronavirus regulations and made some modest but significant changes—some to tighten the rules and others to relax them in response to concerns raised. In the first category, we are clear that leaving home for one reason should not mean adding other activities as well. We confirmed also that physical distancing requirements apply to the workplace, cafes and canteens. In the second category, we have widened the definition of vulnerable people to 'providing supplies is a reasonable excuse to leave home', and we have relaxed the rules to allow people with autism and learning disabilities, for example, to leave home for exercise more than once a day. We have made it clear that businesses that can operate on a click-and-collect basis are able to do so, providing physical distancing is applied.

Llywydd, we take the review process very seriously and will continue to do so in consultation with partners, including the police and local authorities. We are using this review period to plan for the next phase, as I set out in the framework published on Friday. This was the start of a conversation with people in Wales about our journey out of lockdown, and the approach set out in the framework has three key elements: we explain how we will decide when it is safe to start easing the current restrictions; we have set out how we will evaluate options for the initial relaxation measures when the time is right; we want to identify those measures that have the lowest risk and the greatest positive impact on people's lives and the economy in Wales. And we have set out a public health response that will accompany the easing of restrictions. This will include surveillance, contact tracing and testing swiftly to identify and react to any emerging coronavirus hotspots, and this work is being led by the Chief Medical Officer for Wales. At the same time, we are working to plan for the future, harnessing the best ideas from Wales and expert advice from beyond Wales. A post-pandemic Wales will be a very different Wales and we need to respond with new ideas rooted in our values and the Counsel General will be leading that work.

Llywydd, we will move carefully and cautiously as we consider relaxing the current restrictions. We will continue to work closely with other Governments of the United Kingdom to try to achieve a common approach. We will work with people throughout Wales as we face the difficult decisions ahead and I will continue to report on all these matters to the Senedd each week. Diolch yn fawr.

Leader of the opposition, Paul Davies.

Diolch, Llywydd. First Minister, can I thank you for your statement this afternoon? Now, at the heart of Government, there needs to be a commitment to openness and transparency, and in that vein I'd like to ask you specifically about the under-reporting of deaths at Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board, which took over a month to be made public, and the subsequent under-reporting of deaths at Hywel Dda University Health Board.

First Minister, it's a source of national embarrassment that the Welsh Government cannot even publish accurate information over the number of COVID-19 deaths, and, whilst I accept that you've published a review of the situation, there are still questions that need answering. The people of Wales must have confidence that any information published by the Welsh Government and by Public Health Wales is accurate and up to date. Therefore, given that Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board is directly under the control of the Welsh Government, why was a different system to the rest of the Welsh NHS used at all, and why did it take so long before the Welsh Government and Public Health Wales actually realised that there was something wrong?

Your review states that you've had assurances from most health boards that they consider their processes have been and will continue to be robust, but I'm sure you'll appreciate the processes at all health boards must be robust, and so what is the Welsh Government doing to ensure this activity is taking place? And, given that two health boards now have not produced accurate information correctly, what mechanism will the Welsh Government now implement to ensure that local quality assurance actually takes place going forward?

Llywydd, I thank Paul Davies for those points, and I want to agree with him: it is very important indeed that Ministers and people in Wales can be confident that information that is published by our system is accurate and reliable. That is why, as soon as I was alerted to the fact that there had been an under-reporting of deaths from Betsi Cadwaladr, I instituted the review that was published by the health Minister yesterday.

I do want to just correct some of the detail in the leader of the opposition's question, because the sequence of events was in this way: Betsi Cadwaladr had been reporting information into Public Health Wales. Up until 18 April, Public Health Wales published only a global Wales-wide figure of deaths, and Betsi Cadwaladr assumed—as I think they were entitled to do—that their figures were being reflected in that global Welsh figure. On 18 April, Public Health Wales moved to publishing deaths at a disaggregated, health board level, and immediately Betsi Cadwaladr alerted Public Health Wales to the fact that the figures that they had been submitting did not appear to be reflected in the figure that Public Health Wales published at the disaggregated level. Now, it then did take from 18 April to 23 April for Public Health Wales to work with BCU to discuss what had gone on and to carry out a data validation process, and we were informed on 24 April of the results of that discussion. That is the point that I said that I wanted further assurances from Public Health Wales that the detail that they were publishing stood up to scrutiny. And then—. So, I just want to be clear with the Member that a month didn't go by while people knew about this and did nothing about it. Betsi Cadwaladr alerted Public Health Wales on the day that disaggregated data was published, when they could see that something had gone wrong, and then it took until 23/24 April for that to come to the Welsh Government's attention.

Paul Davies, Llywydd, then asked me what has been done to make sure that figures from now on are accurately reported. He will see there are eight actions set out in the report published. Here are some of the most significant: weekly telephone calls between Public Health Wales and all local health boards to make sure that nothing is going astray; confirmation from the chief medical officer to each health board that they are to use the new electronic reporting system; increased local quality assurance; a further quality assurance check by Public Health Wales; and now, for the first time, the whole system to be overseen by the chief statistician, an individual independent of the health service itself and now involved in making sure that the figures published are ones in which we can all have confidence.

Well, I hope that the measures that you've now introduced will be sufficiently robust enough, because it is important that accurate information is published in order to maintain that public confidence.

Now, last week, as you said in your statement today, the Welsh Government published its COVID-19 exit strategy, 'A framework for recovery', which makes it clear that, to further understand the level of infection present in Wales, the Welsh Government is stepping up its testing capacity and capability. However, we know that there have been several significant issues with the testing programme in Wales and yet the Welsh Government's recovery framework offers no detail on how capacity and capability are actually being accelerated.

The framework also states that the Welsh Government needs to be able to track and trace future outbreaks both now, in the summer, and when the real pressure comes in the winter months, so that we do not have to reinstate restrictions once a decision has been made to lift them. It's absolutely essential that we have comprehensive community testing taking place across Wales to defeat this virus, and so it's disappointing to hear that the Welsh Government is choosing not to test all care home residents and staff.

So, First Minister, perhaps you could tell us in your response how the Welsh Government will be stepping up its testing capacity and capability, as well as telling us a bit more about how the Welsh Government intends to track and trace any future outbreaks. Surely, by not choosing to test all care home staff and residents across Wales, the Welsh Government is sending the message that community testing isn't that important in the first place.

Now, the framework for recovery also states that one of the factors to consider in lifting restrictions will be that there needs to be evidence that the Welsh NHS can cope with the expected increase in healthcare needs for at least 14 days if the infection rate goes above 1. So, in light of the Government's framework for recovery, can you tell us how the Welsh Government will actually be able to demonstrate that the health service could cope with any increase in the infection rate in future?

Llywydd, I thank Paul Davies again for those questions. On testing, the current testing plan that is in place involves testing patients, relatives, staff members, key workers—people who are in the front line of the current outbreak. We will need a different testing regime as restrictions come to be lifted, because, at that point, however carefully, however cautiously we go about it, the risk of coronavirus spreading in the community will be greater then than it is now, under the conditions of lockdown.

At that point—I agree with what Paul Davies said—that's when you need to have a community capacity of 'test, track and isolate'. The number of tests available in Wales is increasing—it's 2,100 today; it was 1,800 at the end of last week—and we've made good progress, over the last week, in making sure that care home residents and care home staff have access to the testing that is available.

We are further increasing our testing capacity this week—today, with the opening of facilities in Llandudno, which are both drive-through and mobile. We will have facilities available at Nant-y-ci in Carmarthen as of tomorrow. And we will continue to build that testing capacity.

The reason we don't offer tests to everybody in care homes, symptomatic and asymptomatic, is because the clinical evidence tells us that there is no value in doing so. Because of that, we don't do it. We offer the testing where the advice to us is that it's clinically right to do that. Testing people who have no symptoms today—for that to be a reliable message to them, you'd have to test them again tomorrow, because you can go from having no symptoms to having the symptoms in 24 hours. Using the capacity we have in that way would be to divert the capacity away from where it is clinically worthwhile to doing things where the clinical case for doing so is not one that has been advised to us, and that is why we're not doing it.

We are working with the care home sector to consider a wider testing remit in those care homes where there is clearly an outbreak of coronavirus. The case for wider testing there may be clinically stronger. That's being explored by our clinicians with the care home sector. And, of course, if we make further moves in that direction, we will inform the Assembly of that.

Paul Davies's final point, Llywydd, was the important one about the NHS having the capacity to cope with an upturn in coronavirus as we move out of lockdown. That is part of our framework and our plan. It's part of the reason why we continue to work on the field hospital capacity in Wales. As of today, we have thousands of beds available in the main NHS, including 3,000 acute care beds, and we have fewer critical care beds occupied today than we did this time last week. But we're not relying on that continuing to be the case as we move beyond lockdown, and we will monitor and, where necessary, augment the capacity that the health service has to make sure that, in doing the right thing—and I do think that finding the right way out of lockdown is the right thing—we don't end up putting ourselves back in the position that we've all worked so hard to try to come out of.

Plaid Cymru leader, Adam Price.

First Minister, the leader of your party has said we're possibly on track to have one of the worst death rates in Europe. Now, he was referring to the UK of course, but the same is, sadly, true for Wales. Why have we done so badly compared to so many other countries?

I don't think I am necessarily the best person to offer a comprehensive answer to that question, because the answer will rely on people with expertise in many different dimensions. I just want to remind the Member that, six weeks ago, we faced the position here in Wales where we had a genuine fear that coronavirus would take off to an extent that our NHS would be overwhelmed—we wouldn't have either beds in critical care or ventilators that were necessary.

I remember a very sober conversation with the leader of Plaid Cymru one weekend, when we talked about the invidious position that clinicians might face where they had to choose between people who would be offered treatment and those who might not be. All the efforts that we have made—in the NHS, in social care, and by Welsh citizens—mean that we are not in that position and have not been in that position.

So, the death rates of course are hugely concerning, and comparisons will be made of what has happened here with what has happened elsewhere, but in doing that let us not just set to one side the enormous efforts that people have made to avoid those very, very difficult and painful positions that at one time we thought were a realistic prospect here in Wales.

Can I ask about PPE? Will you publish formal medical advice from the chief medical officer on the use of protection, facial protection, by the public? And did you act on the recommendations of the New and Emerging Respiratory Virus Threats Advisory Group, the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies sub-committee, when it proposed that face visors and eye goggles were added to the pandemic stockpile in 2016, and when it did similarly as regards surgical gowns in June of last year?

I'll do my best to provide an answer to the Member's questions about the advice of a sub-committee in 2016—I don't think Members will expect me to have answers to that just at my fingertips.

On the issue of non-medical face coverings by members of the public, we remain in discussion with our own chief medical officer about the advice that he would provide on that. We're of course interested in the guidance that was published in Scotland yesterday. There are upsides and downsides to any course of action. Many members of the public are already wearing coverings of that sort, and clearly it gives those people confidence to resume parts of daily life. Our own chief medical officer, in the discussions that I've had with him already, points to the danger that people can take false reassurance from wearing face coverings of that sort. Quite certainly, if anybody thought, having a symptomatic cough, that putting a face mask on makes it safe for you to go out, they would not be following good advice. So, we continue in discussion with the chief medical officer. He will formalise his advice, no doubt, at some point, and once his advice is formal, then of course I'll be happy to make that public. 

Leader of the Brexit Party, Mark Reckless.

What is the point of fiddling with the legal framework that the UK Government and Parliament sets for England just to make it a bit different in Wales? Why is it important to follow rules a bit differently in Wales than in England? We saw many businesses close down who weren't legally required to, and a lot of those are working hard with customers, employees—sometimes with Government—to try and find ways in which they can reopen safely, and they apply their own common sense and their own knowledge of their individual business to do that. Yet, in Wales, they're also going to have to do jump through, comply, with legal regulations set by Welsh Government, by Ministers and civil servants, who won't know those individual businesses, and in most circumstances haven't worked in business themselves. How many jobs are we going to lose because companies decide they've got 20 times the business in England than they have in Wales and they don't want to take that compliance risk with those legal regulations you put specifically for Wales?

Why is it, in Wales, that people are only allowed to leave the house to exercise once a day, but there's no equivalent requirement in England? Why do the same words in regulations supposedly mean something different in Wales, according to Welsh Government, than what people in England are told by the police they mean there? For instance, why is it okay to go by car to an appropriate place to exercise in England, but not apparently in Wales? Why should there be a restriction on cycling in Wales but not in England, that somehow it's only acceptable to do that for exercise if it's within a reasonable distance of someone's home?

And the legal requirements in the regulations were, I believe, the same in Wales for lifting these extraordinary requirements and restrictions put on people, that they have to be lifted as soon as they're no longer necessary or proportionate for the risk of infection from coronavirus, and Welsh Ministers must do that. The UK Government, it's got five tests, but they are specific to those, go to those issues. You have published a much wider set of approaches that you say are rooted in Welsh values, but they don't seem to be rooted in the law that you're required to apply. They include: does the measure have a high positive equality impact? Are the measures consistent with your plans for an equal and greener Wales and its assessment with the Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015? And do they provide opportunities for widening participation in a more inclusive society? Today, we believe, what does Gordon Brown think? Why are those things applied here, but not in England, to get out of these draconian regulations devastating our economy and well-being?

Well, Llywydd, it is like slipping back not 20 years, but 120 years. The Member may as well have authored that famous entry in Encyclopaedia Britannica, 'For Wales, see England', because the answer to his question is: if I was to agree with him, what would be the point of the National Assembly for Wales? What would be the point of Wales at all? Because his argument is entirely that we should simply do what other people are doing elsewhere.

He was wrong when he said, in the beginning, that the UK Parliament had set a set of rules that somehow we were departing from. What the UK Parliament did was to provide the power to Wales, to Scotland, to Northern Ireland, and separately to England, to make rules and regulations for the different parts of the United Kingdom, and that is exactly what we have done. And where we have requirements that are different to other parts of the United Kingdom—and I so profoundly disagree with the Member in his constantly setting up England as the touchstone against which everything we do should be judged—where we do things differently to any other part of the United Kingdom, we do so because of Welsh needs and circumstances.

We were the first part of the United Kingdom to introduce rules in relation to caravan and campsites. Why did we do that? Because we were hearing the message so loud and clear from south-west and north-west Wales of people travelling to those parts of Wales and causing a public health danger to themselves and to others. Why do we say, 'Exercise once a day'? Because Ministers across the United Kingdom, including, he'll be glad to hear I'm sure, English Ministers, constantly say to people, 'Leave your home once a day for exercise.' 'Once a day' is what we say; 'once a day' is what we mean; 'once a day' is what our regulations say.

As for the 2m rule, which I think he was referring to, then I think that will be an asset to businesses in Wales, because what we are finding in the rest of the world is that simply to row back on regulations, open up things that were closed during lockdown, provides no guarantee that people will turn up to undertake those activities. You can open a shopping centre, and if people don't think it's safe to go there, nobody will come. You can open up workplaces again, and if people who have to work there believe that their health and well-being has not been thought about and protected, they will be reluctant to go there too. Our 2m rule, which responsible businesses in Wales have been abiding by very willingly, sends a message to workers in Wales that when the time comes to return to the workplace, their health and well-being will have been thought about, planned for and in place, and that will make those businesses more likely to succeed than if we had not taken that course of action.

First Minister, today is National Postal Workers Day, and I wonder if you will join me in thanking all those posties and their trade union, the Communication Workers Union, who do such fantastic work all year round and who, as designated key workers during the coronavirus crisis, have worked round the clock to make sure every community gets its mail.

First Minister, I have one additional point I want to ask, and that is in respect of local government finance. This crisis has taken a heavy financial toll on local government, and I understand that my own local authority, Rhondda Cynon Taf, is losing around £2.5 million income a month. So, it's a result of both the increased range of services that the council is providing and the reduced income, for example, as a result of leisure centres being closed. Local government is a critical front-line service that has, once again, stepped up. Rhondda Cynon Taf's response, not only during the pandemic, but during the flooding earlier this year, has been magnificent, and I want to congratulate the council and its leader, Andrew Morgan, and all the workers in Rhondda Cynon Taf for what they've achieved and what they continue to do. So, it's right that we recognise the vital importance of local government, but we also need to recognise that the current financial pressures on local government can only be sustained for so long. I would ask you, First Minister: what representations are being made to the UK Government to ensure that councils in Wales and, indeed, across the United Kingdom, will get the financial support that they need to survive during the coming months? 

Llywydd, I thank Mick Antoniw for those questions. I'm very pleased indeed to associate myself with what he has said about the fantastic work that postal workers do every day and have sustained during the coronavirus emergency. They are workers on the front line, as Mick Antoniw said, and we're really grateful to them for the way in which they have kept that part of normal life going through the whole crisis.

Mick Antoniw is absolutely right, of course, about the pressures on local government, and let me too say that I think that local government in Wales has demonstrated its strength during the last weeks in providing services at that local level to people where the need is greatest. We've been very fortunate, I think, to have local government in Wales led by Councillor Andrew Morgan, both as leader of RCT, but also as leader of the Welsh Local Government Association. The Welsh Government has already provided £110 million directly and additionally to local government in Wales, exceeding the £95 million we've had in consequentials from the UK Government for the same purposes in England. We are working with the WLGA who, together with the Local Government Association, are jointly making representations to the UK Government for further funding to take account of the lost income issue—a very serious issue for local authorities—and we as a Welsh Government are playing our part in making those points to UK colleagues too. 

The Home Office announced on 11 April that it was working with charities in England to provide an additional £2 million for domestic abuse helplines and online support. Almost two weeks later, Welsh Women's Aid wrote to your Deputy Minister stating that violence against women, domestic abuse and sexual violence specialist services across Wales have expressed confusion, frustration and concern as to what additional funding is being made available as a response to COVID-19. So, aside from the £1.2 million announced in December, what new money has therefore been ring-fenced by the Welsh Government for these specialist services in Wales?

Her Majesty's Government announced £200 million of new money for hospices in England, and it's understood the consequent allocation to the Welsh Government would be significantly more than the additional support of up to £6.3 million you announced for hospices in Wales. How, therefore, do you respond to the concern expressed by hospices across Wales that this additional money will not be used by the Welsh Government to support and sustain essential hospice services in Wales?

Llywydd, once again I simply reject this constant assumption that our job in Wales is to judge ourselves against what somebody else is doing elsewhere. What happens in a different part of the United Kingdom is not a template for Wales, and we're not to be judged against actions that other people choose to take in other parts of the United Kingdom. What we do is to make decisions in a way that meets Welsh needs, Welsh circumstances and our ability to respond to them.

The domestic violence issue is a really serious one. We know from evidence across the world that there is an upswing in domestic violence during periods of lockdown, as we have seen. There is nobody better placed than the Deputy Minister Jane Hutt, the founder of Welsh Women's Aid herself 30 years and more ago, to be in conversations with that sector to understand their needs and to make sure that we are doing everything we can to respond to them.

We have indeed announced £6.3 million additional funding for hospices in Wales. Hospices in Wales are funded in a different way to the way they are in England. It's a very important part of our landscape here in Wales, with a huge voluntary effort that is very much appreciated and has been very well supported by the Welsh Government through the work that we have done, and through the work that Baroness Ilora Finlay has done on our behalf. Again, we have regular, close and, I think, productive dialogue with that sector here in Wales, and we devise solutions that are right for them and right for us in Wales.

First Minister, you will be very aware that many farms in Wales are facing grave problems as a result of coronavirus and its impact on the food sector. Beef and dairy farmers, particularly, are facing huge losses of up to £10,000 a month in a number of cases.

These businesses aren't going to be able to carry that level of loss and that level of debt for too long, so urgent action in this area is crucial. These businesses, generally speaking, don't qualify for many of the business schemes that your Government has already put in place. So, my question, quite simply, is: will you as First Minister, and will your Government, introduce a bespoke support scheme for Welsh farmers who find themselves in difficulties as a result of this crisis? And if you are intending to do that, can you tell us when, because, as I say, time is a key factor in all of this? If you don't intend to introduce such a scheme, then perhaps you could explain why. 

Llywydd, I would like to thank Llyr Gruffydd for those questions. Just to say, first of all, that I do I recognise the problems faced in agriculture in the context of the coronavirus crisis. We have worked, and we do work, with farmers in the dairy sector, for example, to try to find more ways for them to make use of the milk that they produce on a daily basis in Wales. We know that where they sold milk prior to coronavirus that the demand there doesn't exist as it did presviously, but we do want to work with farmers in Wales in order to create alternative opportunities for them to use their milk by making more cheese or more butter, or whatever else they can produce. And I do know that those discussions are ongoing between our officials and leaders in the agricultural sector here in Wales.

I do acknowledge what Llyr Gruffydd said about debts. I'm sure that many people working in this area are concerned about their futures and I am, of course, happy to speak to Lesley Griffiths about a bespoke scheme, as Llyr Gruffydd suggested, to see whether that could be something that could assist people working in this area. If we can draw together everything that we're currently doing to assist people, then I am more than happy to take the opportunity to speak to the Minister with responsibilities in this portfolio to see whether such a scheme would be of assistance in showing what we're already doing and what we wish to do in the future in order to support people in our rural areas. 

Can I associate myself with the remarks that have been made so far about local government?

First Minister, I wanted to ask you about businesses. The support for businesses has been very welcome but, as you know, there are 178 job losses proposed at Safran in Cwmbran, and the aerospace industry is, I believe, uniquely at risk from this pandemic, so I'd like to ask you for an update on what discussions are taking place with Safran and for your assurances that you will work with the economy Minister to do everything possible to try to save those jobs.

I also wanted to ask about support for vulnerable shoppers. Things are much improved with the shielded group and online shopping, but I'm continuing to be contacted by disabled people who have always shopped online and now can't access online shopping slots. What progress is being made, First Minister, in actually opening up some more slots for those particular shoppers who, though they are not shielded, do need that support? Diolch yn fawr. 

Llywydd, I thank Lynne Neagle for both of those points. Coronavirus is a business emergency as well as a health emergency, and that is being felt in some very big employers here in Wales. I think certainty about the furlough scheme, so that companies know that it's not going to come to an abrupt end, that they can continue to hang on to their workforces and don't need to move to redundancy, is key to dealing with the sorts of issues that Lynne Neagle is identifying in her own constituency but which are there in many other parts of Wales as well. Those are companies who don't want to let go of their staff because they lose the skills that, in many instances, they have themselves invested in growing over many years. But the furlough scheme comes to an end not that many weeks from now. The Chancellor has announced one short extension to it; he needs to announce further extensions, particularly for the most vulnerable sectors, of the sort that Lynne has identified. And we continue to make that case very clearly to him. But a quick and abrupt end to the furlough scheme will simply result in costs to the UK Government, moving from the furlough scheme to redundancy costs and to benefit costs. So, much better to continue to invest in helping those companies to have a successful future, and, of course, we will do what we can through the economy Minister and his team to help in specific instances.

As far as shoppers are concerned, thank you to Lynne for what she said about the position being improved. I think they're much more confident now that those in the shielded group are able to access online shopping. For people outside that group who find that they're no longer able to get access in the way that they did, I think their first port of call is to their local authority hub. And it may be that there will be other arrangements that can be put in place where people can still get the food they need, and disabled people and others without networks of support can rely on the help that local authorities can provide to them. It may not be through an online shopping arrangement, but a volunteer going to the shop, getting what they need and taking it to them. And in line with what Lynne Neagle said and others have said, local authorities in Wales are, I think, successfully demonstrating that they're able to step into the breach where we have vulnerable people who don't have other networks that they can draw on.

First Minister, since you changed the criteria for the self-catering industry in terms of the grants applicable, I've been contacted by a lot of people—farmers, letting agencies—where they do have some self-catering units and this is their only income. Some had already received it, of course, prior to you making that new guidance, and so my question is: how can you square this now with those who have no income coming in because of the guidance that's now put in place? Those properties are shut down and they have no income coming in. 

First of all, Llywydd, to assure the Member that individuals who have already received help will be able to retain the help that they have received; we're not looking to claw it back from them. We have changed the advice to local government about self-catering accommodation because of the representations we received from local authorities in Wales, including her own Conservative-led Conwy, that the system was not operating in the way that made sure that help went to the right people. So, all we are saying is that people who rely on the self-catering letting, where the income they get from that is clearly a significant part of their income, then if they can demonstrate that, local authorities can continue to provide help to them. But we were paying millions of pounds—this is what local authorities said to us—to people for whom self-catering income was a marginal addition to the income they already had; it was at the edge of their income, not central to it.

We've responded to those representations. We have a set of rules in place that I think allow us to distinguish between people who were relying on this as their main income and their main business, and people for whom it was not that central to their incomes, and will allow us to use that money that otherwise would be going to people of marginal advantage for others who need it much more seriously. Local authorities have discretion, so if local authorities come across cases, then the Member will be able to talk to her local authority, and if they think it is right to exercise that discretion, they are able to do it under the rules we have devised with them.  

First Minister, last Thursday your Government announced a change in policy relating to testing people moving from hospital back into care homes. Until the end of last week, care home residents were routinely moving between hospital and care homes without being tested, but that's been rectified now. But I've spoken to one care home manager who thinks it's very likely that the virus entered the care home through that route, and a request for a resident to be tested before leaving hospital was denied. That care home has since suffered a number of deaths that they suspect relate to COVID-19. But, First Minister, given all this and the fact that Office for National Statistics data suggests that deaths from COVID-19 in care homes are much higher than initially thought, what assurance can you give us that the Welsh Government's failure to test care home residents has not led to numerous outbreaks and deaths in care homes in Wales? 

Llywydd, there were an awful lot of 'suspects', of 'maybes' and 'could-have-beens' in that question. What the Welsh Government did was to follow the clinical advice that we had that testing somebody leaving a hospital who had no symptoms of coronavirus, going to a care home, was not something that offered you any clinical assurance. Anybody with symptoms was tested all along. It was only people who had no signs at all of coronavirus that weren't tested, and the clinical advice to us was that a test of that person would offer you no reliable assurance that would make any difference to the decisions that were being made about that person.

The reason why we changed the guidance was not because the clinical advice had changed, but because we recognised the need to give confidence to people in the sector, that there were anxieties about people being discharged from hospital without a test even when that person had no signs of coronavirus at all, and because we recognise those concerns and the need to give confidence to people in that sector, we changed our arrangements so that people leaving hospitals, whether they have any symptoms or not of coronavirus, are now tested before they leave, and, indeed, we're extending that to any setting that somebody enters a care home from—not just from hospitals, but anywhere somebody entering a care home is moving from in Wales, that person will now be tested for coronavirus.

But to be clear with the Member, the medical and clinical advice remain all the same all the way through: that a test of somebody who has no symptoms doesn't offer you anything useful in making the right decisions for that person. We've done it because we want to make sure that, for those people who are providing such an essential service to people, and who have anxieties, we are doing things that we can to give them the confidence they need to go on providing the essential service that they are providing. 

The consequence of the dramatic restrictions on economic activity in recent weeks are likely to be even greater than those of the great recession of 1929-31. That means that the tax base is going to be significantly reduced and there'll be less money to spend on health and social services in the future. So, it's vitally important that restrictions are relaxed as quickly as possible. Of course, we have to take into account the impact on the coronavirus itself, but nevertheless, the Government should lean in the direction of economic freedom for the benefit of us all. 

In this respect, I wonder if the First Minister will consider the difference between rural Wales and urban Wales. There's a much greater chance of contracting the virus in heavily populated urban areas than in rural areas, and, therefore, might we be able to devise a scheme whereby we can relax these restrictions more quickly in sparsely populated rural areas than in heavily and densely populated urban areas?

Well, let me begin, Llywydd, by agreeing with what Neil Hamilton said about the significance of the restrictions that we are asking everybody to abide by. I absolutely do not underestimate at all what we are asking of people. Where I disagree with him is I think he wants to counterpoise what we do for people's health and what we do for the economy, and wants us to put the economy ahead of health as though these things were in competition with one another. I think there is nothing worse that we could do for the economy than to lift restrictions that lead to another significant peak of coronavirus later in the year, in which the current draconian measures might have to be reintroduced. I think that would be economically more damaging than regarding health and economy measures as hand in hand rather than in opposition with one another, and doing the right thing by people's health is to do the right thing by the economy. And that does mean doing these things in a way that puts the public health lens first, that is careful, that is cautious, that looks always at the evidence of the impact of any steps we are taking, and making sure that, as we move out of lockdown—and I want to move out of lockdown; I agree with him there that we have to find a path out of this—we do so in a way that doesn't further damage our economy by allowing the virus to circulate rapidly around the community again. 

I understand the point Mr Hamilton makes about things being different in rural and urban Wales, but all the messages that I get from rural Wales are messages of anxiety about doing things too quickly there, including allowing a lot of visitors from other parts of the country where the virus has been in more rapid circulation, to come to those parts of Wales. And if we're talking about opening up the economy of rural Wales, then tourism at this time of the year would be inevitably a very serious contender in that regard, and the level of local anxiety that might be created by doing so I think outweighs some of the arguments that can be made about differentiating between urban and rural contexts. People would be fearful that what we are doing is undermining the very conditions that Mr Hamilton pointed to, in which the virus is not in circulation in rural communities. And while I don't dismiss the argument—I think he points to a proper argument—I come to probably a different conclusion about how we should respond to it.

First Minister, I've received a great deal of positive feedback from businesses in the Cynon Valley regarding the economic resilience fund and how it's plugged the gaps in the provision from the UK Government. But I've also been contacted by several businesses that can't access the funds currently as they're below the £85,000 VAT threshold. Can I ask what work is taking place around this gap so that businesses can access the support they need to survive?

And on a separate note, I was really pleased to see the commitment from Welsh Government to feed free-school-meal pupils during the school holiday throughout the coronavirus. If this provision is shown to have achieved its goal, making sure that no child goes hungry, what consideration could be given to see if such a service could be provided 365 days a year, building on the school holiday enrichment programme?

I thank Vikki Howells for both of those. I believe that business support in Wales is more extensive than in any other part of the United Kingdom. And the way we are using our economic resilience fund really is stepping into some of the gaps that were there after the UK Government acted—and I always say at this point that we acknowledge the considerable steps they have taken to provide support for businesses.

We've paused the scheme as of Monday, and one of the reasons is that we want to look to see whether we can fine tune it. There was a good reason for using the VAT threshold mechanism, because it's a passport into the system that means it's much simpler for businesses to get our help. And one of the things we were anxious about with our fund was to get that help as rapidly as possible to businesses. One of the drawbacks of the UK help—which I appreciate is a function of the scale on which it has to operate—is that some of that help has taken a long time to reach where it is needed, and we are doing our best to get our help as fast as possible into the hands of those businesses. Being VAT registered allows us to cut out a lot of other things we may need to have asked businesses to do, to establish that they are a genuine business and therefore eligible for public funds. What we are looking to see, as part of the review, is whether there is anything we could do to address the issue that Vikki Howells has raised.

And again, thank you for what she said about free school meals. We were the first part of the United Kingdom—I've no doubt Mr Reckless will want to know why we did anything in advance of England, but we were the first part of the United Kingdom to fund and guarantee that we will provide free school meals to children in Wales during the rest of the crisis, through to September, building on the success of the holiday enrichment programme.

On the whole, coronavirus is a pretty grim experience, and a very, very sad experience for many families in Wales. But there will be some things that we will learn that are positive lessons, that we will take from this whole experience. And the way we've been able to respond to vulnerable children, and continue to offer support to them, will be one of the places we will want to look to see whether there are things we can do differently and better in the future.

First Minister, I had a very beneficial meeting with the Isle of Anglesey Tourism Association last week. And I'd like to thank the sector for responding so well to the difficult situation that they face, with so many of their members facing grave losses. I would be delighted to see them restarting their businesses, but that's impossible at the moment.

There's a bank holiday on its way the weekend after next. We cannot afford to open the floodgates on that weekend, so could I invite the First Minister to make a clear statement that we will not, in any way, relax the rules and regulations that could make people think that they would be welcome to return to Wales to spend time in the beautiful areas that we do have here? That’s for another time. So, can we have that statement today, please?

I thank Rhun ap Iorwerth for that important point. And as I said in response to Neil Hamilton, of course we are thinking of the tourism businesses the length and breadth of Wales, and I do know, because I have heard from many people in that position, the problems that they are facing. But, for me, the solution isn’t simply to open the floodgates unless everything is in place and we can be confident that doing that won’t create problems in the health sector.

I’ve heard what the Police and Crime Commissioner for North Wales said about the upcoming bank holiday and I have been discussing that point with the other UK Governments. Because, as Rhun said, we could say and do something here in Wales, but it’s important to convey that message to others, that we don’t want to see people travelling into Wales over that bank holiday and creating the problems that we know that would lead to. It’s important to get that message out there, not just here in Wales, but outwith Wales too. That’s why we are talking to other Governments so that our message is consistent.

Finally, Carwyn Jones.

I apologise for the technical issue that prevented me from joining when I should have done. That's been resolved now, as you can see. First Minister, do you share my despair sometimes that there are still some people who think that, for Wales, we should always compare ourselves with England? Some 20 years ago, I saw correspondence from the then chief medical officer warning of the dangers of the link between bovine spongiform encephalopathy—BSE—and Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease—CJD—and the response from her counterpart in the UK Government was basically, 'You are in Wales; know your place'—words to that effect. How sad it is that what is born of an inferiority complex—that somehow England must be better—is still with us. We could argue, of course, that what England has done is actually diverge from Wales and not the other way around.

Could I bring you on to testing? From what I understand, then, that you're saying is that testing is of little clinical value unless people are tested on a daily basis. So, simply offering somebody a test because they're in a vulnerable group is of no use at all unless the same person is tested on a daily basis in order to see if they have the virus, if they are asymptomatic when the first test takes place.

The second point is this: there will come a time when all this is over and we hope, of course, that that time will be sooner rather than later, but for those of us who remember the banking crash in 2008, where bankers took people's hard-earned savings and took them off to, effectively, the equivalent of a banking casino and blew them all, they were bailed out by people working in the public sector—those people who are now working very hard on not much pay; those people who have given all their time—many, many hours, every single day—to save lives and look after people. They were the people through pay freezes and austerity who were made to pay for what other people had done. Can you give me an assurance, First Minister, that when this is over, the bill for the money that is being borrowed by the UK Government will not rest disproportionately on the shoulders of public sector workers who are working so hard, but instead, we will look at highly paid footballers; we will look at large businesses, many of whom—some do—but many of whom do not pay their fair share of tax, and we will take seriously the issue of tax avoidance in order to make sure that those who have the broadest shoulders are able to pay in the future and also that those who are giving so much now are not penalised, given the fact that they're saving so many lives?

Llywydd, can I thank Carwyn for those three points? I do share his sense of despair at the know-your-place approach to devolution. But, personally, I've never settled for the idea that devolution is about competitive comparisons with other parts of the United Kingdom. It is much, much more about each one of us doing the things that we think are right in our own places and learning from one another in the experiment that that naturally creates.

Carwyn makes a very important point about testing. If you're not symptomatic today, that does not mean to say that you may not have acquired the virus by tomorrow. If you're going to try and draw any value from testing non-symptomatic people, you'd have to do it every single day, and those are tests drawn away, then, from people who really do need to be tested where proper conclusions can be drawn. So, I understand that people somehow believe that having a test gives you an answer and creates a set of certainties, it just doesn't if you don't use the tests in the right way, and we're trying to use them in the right way here in Wales. 

And can I end, Llywydd, by just echoing everything Carwyn Jones said in his last remarks? He is echoing an argument that he made over 10 years of austerity that the price of the banking crisis should not be loaded onto the shoulders of those least able to bear it. And, yet, that is exactly what we saw: people whose benefits weren't raised for year after year; people whose wages were held down year after year; all those people doing all the things that we have had to value during this crisis who weren't valued at all. And we cannot and must not allow the UK Government to believe that the answer to the expenditure that has necessarily and rightly been incurred to deal with coronavirus is to be clawed back by a re-imposed austerity in which all the costs fall on all those people who have done the most to help us get through it together. 

I thank the First Minister.