The next item is the statement from the First Minister on coronavirus, and I call on the First Minister to make that statement. Mark Drakeford

Thank you very much, Llywydd. Once again, I will update Members of the Senedd on the key developments since my statement of last week. I will focus on health and care services and on how we are responding to the impact of coronavirus on Wales's most vulnerable people. Of course, social distancing rules remain in place, and we must all adhere to them. There are a number of encouraging things to report, but we must remain vigilant as we plan for the next steps.

Llywydd, once again I will update Members on the key developments since my statement of a week ago. As in previous weeks, I will deal with issues not covered in the statements that follow from the Minister for Economy, Transport and North Wales, the Minister for International Relations and the Welsh Language, and the Counsel General and Minister for European Transition.

Llywydd, as we head towards the end of the second period of lockdown, I would like to provide Members with the latest figures on the progression of the disease in Wales. Thanks to the enormous efforts of people throughout our nation, the number of coronavirus cases is decreasing and the rate at which the virus is circulating has come down. It remains, however, close to the level that could put us back in danger. The crisis is certainly not over, even as some signs improve.

In that context, the number of new confirmed cases of coronavirus reported every day by Public Health Wales is now consistently fewer than 200. The number of people in hospital with coronavirus has fallen again to just over 900 on 5 May. There are now fewer than 70 people in critical care with coronavirus, down from more than 100 in the middle of last month.

Taken together, this body of evidence shows that everything we are doing together as a community is helping us move past the peak of the virus. But, this week, we note that the number of deaths in Wales has now exceeded 1,000. This sombre milestone—each one of those a human life, and a family grieving—underlines the need for great caution as we approach the end of the second review period this week.

Llywydd, I turn now to some practical matters. Thanks to the unstinting efforts of many colleagues, the positive position on PPE that I reported last week has been further maintained. Deliveries from Cambodia and China into Cardiff Airport have put our stocks in a more stable position. We continue to work with partners to ensure that supplies are distributed fairly and reliably across Wales, to meet the needs of hospital and care staff, as well as GPs, optometrists, urgent dental centres and pharmacies and others.

Llywydd, as you've just heard, our testing capacity continues to increase. It's now at 2,100 tests a day, up from 1,800 last week. The north Wales and Carmarthen drive-through testing centres opened last week. The new Swansea bay facility will open this week. We are testing health and social care workers, police, the fire service and prison staff, and will expand to other key workers as capacity increases. Yesterday we received a significant delivery of testing equipment from overseas. Today it is being installed and validated. That process is being completed as rapidly as possible, and will lead to a further step up in capacity next week.

Llywydd, I reported last week to Members that we were working with the care home sector on a wider testing remit in those care homes where there is an outbreak of coronavirus. The health Minister announced the changes to give effect to that wider remit in a written statement on 2 May. In essence, the changes do more to prevent the introduction of coronavirus in care homes where none is in circulation, and more to respond to new outbreaks. As part of that effort, from the beginning of this week eight new mobile testing units will be deployed as part of the plan to test all residents and staff in a care home where an outbreak has occurred.

Llywydd, last week I mentioned the work already under way on an enhanced public health infrastructure to underpin recovery in Wales. That will include three core elements: contact tracing, sampling and testing, and surveillance. That has now been the subject of a topical question answered by the health Minister.

Llywydd, the publication last week of the ONS report ’Coronavirus and the social impacts on disabled people in Great Britain’ demonstrated the stark inequality dimension of the current crisis. It is clear that the virus is having the greatest impact on those with the fewest resources. It will deepen the inequalities already entrenched by a decade of austerity, and this impact may be more intense in Wales due to the age profile of our population and the higher level of deprivation in some of our communities. 

As we made clear in the framework for recovery document, published on 24 April, addressing inequality will be a key factor in our plans for coming out of lockdown. In the meantime, we have already taken a series of actions to mitigate where we can the impacts of the crisis on the poorest and most vulnerable citizens in Wales. 

As Members will know, research has established that minority ethnic groups are experiencing greater harm from the virus than the majority of the population and that there is a differential impact within BAME communities. Through our stakeholder groups, we are working to understand these impacts and how they are affecting our communities in Wales. A BAME COVID-19 advisory group has been established to examine the evidence and to identify measures that could be taken further to protect the most vulnerable, and I will attend a meeting of that group immediately after concluding my statement this afternoon. 

Llywydd, we have continued to prioritise the welfare of families who need help the most. The Minister for Education has announced funding of up to £40 million to enable local authorities to continue free school meal provision until schools reopen, or to the end of August. Wales is the first country in the United Kingdom to provide this continued assurance of support during the school holidays, just as we are funding free childcare for pre-school children of critical workers, and we are the only country in the UK providing free childcare for vulnerable people. And the digital exclusion grant of £3 million, announced since the Senedd last met, will enable all children to access the IT they may need for remote learning during the crisis. 

We have recognised the exceptional service provided by care workers through a flat-rate £500 payment to those in the social care workforce providing personal social care. As with the £60,000 death in service payment, this will have the greatest relative benefit for those with the least to begin with. Llywydd, women bear the brunt of low pay in our society. More than 80 per cent of workers in social care are women, and our decision to make a payment of £500 will have an equality impact in gender as well as in income.

At the same time, Llywydd, I should welcome the decision of the Ministry of Justice to locate the first new women offenders residential centre in Wales, a long-overdue development and much assisted by the advocacy of my colleagues, Alun Davies and now Jane Hutt.

Llywydd, in providing financial support from within a limited block budget, we work to target funding where it is most needed. By providing a ceiling of £0.5 million on the rateable value eligibility for our business rate relief scheme, we have freed up more than £100 million to support smaller businesses across Wales. And here we have kept to important schemes that benefit low-paid and vulnerable people. The discretionary assistance fund was particularly important during the flooding emergency earlier this year, and it continues to offer vital protection to people in financial crisis. We have allocated an additional £11 million to this fund this year. In normal times, Llywydd, the discretionary assistance fund makes around 5,600 payments each month, totalling £330,000; since the impact of the crisis, 12,000 payments are being made monthly, totalling now £0.75 million. We continue to support households experiencing hardship through the council tax reduction scheme, and continue to encourage people to contact their local authority to see if they are eligible for help through it. 

Finally, Llywydd, last week marked five years since the Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015 became Welsh law, and that was set out in an important statement by the Deputy Minister and Chief Whip yesterday. As we respond to the current crisis and plan for a post-COVID Wales, the Welsh Government will hold fast to the principles of that Act to build a more prosperous, greener and more equal Wales. The actions I have outlined today are rooted in our commitment to social, economic and environmental justice, and it is this that will continue to shape our actions in the future. Diolch yn fawr. 

Leader of the opposition, Paul Davies. 

Diolch, Llywydd. First Minister, I'm pleased to see that the Welsh Government has changed its policy on testing in care homes, and that, moving forward, all staff and residents in care homes where there's been a case of COVID-19 will now be tested.

Now, last week, you told us that there was no clinical value in extending the tests further and yet, clearly, that clinical value has now been found. You know that I've raised this issue with the chief medical officer, but the people of Wales deserve to know what new clinical evidence the Welsh Government has actually received. However, this policy still doesn't go far enough, and the Older People's Commissioner for Wales, Heléna Herklots, is right to say that the Welsh Government should be testing all care home residents and staff as a matter of urgency.

Therefore, will you now publish the clinical evidence that you initially received advising you not to test care home residents and staff, and will you also publish the new information that you've received since then that has led to you changing this policy? And will you go one step further and commit to testing all care home residents and staff, so that the sector isn't seen as collateral damage by commentators like Care Forum Wales? 

Llywydd, I thank Paul Davies for that. He will know that, in answering questions from him last week, I said then that the Welsh Government was reviewing the evidence about testing in care homes and looking to see whether our testing regime could be further extended. I said that to the Member on Wednesday, and on Friday, the health Minister set out the practical steps that we would take. The Member asks about the evidence that we have drawn on in making that change. Well, I can tell him that we drew on studies from Singapore and from Spain, from a Public Health England pilot study into six London care homes, on a report for the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control in New York, on nursing home sector COVID experience there. We've drawn on evidence from Washington and we've drawn on the UK Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine's systematic report on evidence on how best to contain the spread of coronavirus in the care home sector.

That report identified five different ways in which the spread of coronavirus could be contained, and testing is only one of them. The systematic review puts emphasis on hand hygiene, on environmental decontamination, on staff rotas in care homes and the way in which staff can be rota-ed in order to reduce the risk of coronavirus being imported into care homes, on restrictions on visitors to care homes and then, fifthly and finally, on measures in relation to testing.

I said to the Member last week that I had not seen any clinical evidence that led me to believe that testing of non-symptomatic residents and staff in care homes where there is no coronavirus in circulation had a clinical value. That was confirmed in the evidence that came to Ministers last week, and that is why we will not, at this point, be doing that in Wales. If the clinical evidence changes, then we will follow the evidence. 

The Member started by asking for evidence and then asked me to do something for which there is no evidence, and we will not be doing that. Our position was set out in Vaughan Gething's statement on Friday of last week and, essentially, it is about doing more to prevent coronavirus getting into care homes where there is none today, and then doing more in those care homes where there is symptomatic spread, in order to make the management of the virus in those homes more effective.  

Well, First Minister, I think it is important that we do see the evidence, because this policy has indeed changed. It's important that the Welsh Government is open and transparent on these matters because the public have a right to know what evidence has been used when a policy changes.

Now, moving on, First Minister, I'm pleased to see that the Isle of Wight is now preparing to trial a phone app that will track COVID-19 infections. First Minister, this may be an area that the Welsh Government can work on with the UK Government so that Wales can also be at the forefront of these technological developments. Whilst, of course, there are data issues on how it could be shared in Wales, this type of contact tracing could be of huge benefit to us here in Wales. Can you therefore confirm that Wales is willing to be part of this process, and that your officials are working with their counterparts in England to see how we could use this technology here in Wales? And will you commit to publishing the latest guidance that the Welsh Government receives on this issue, so that we can track and trace the Welsh Government's progress in this area?

Llywydd, can I just start by saying that all the evidence that I cited in my first answer to Paul Davies, other than the Public Health England pilot study into the six London care homes, is all public domain evidence? It's available for any member of the public who wishes to see it, including Assembly Members, and I'll confirm whether the Public Health England study is also in the public domain.

On the Isle of Wight piloting of the app, the Welsh Government has membership of the oversight group, which is developing that app, as does the Government of Scotland. There are data issues, as Paul Davies says, that need to be resolved, and the purpose of the Isle of Wight experiment is to see whether the app lives up to the promise that is there for it. And he will know, we've had a number of instances during the coronavirus crisis where something that looked very promising didn't turn out to be capable of delivering that promise, which is why the Isle of Wight pilot is so important. But I hope it will be a success, and I hope that it will be possible to resolve those data privacy issues, because I want to be able to recommend the app to people in Wales, because the more people who use the app, the more effective the app becomes. 

So, the position I want to be in is one that I can confidently say to people in Wales that this is something that they can do, that they can do safely, that they can do with any anxieties they have about the use of their personal data having been met by the work that is going on during this pilot period. But we have to wait to see the results of the pilot and the resolution of the data issues. I'm very keen, as I said to UK Government Ministers yesterday, that we should be able to publish—as the question Paul Davies put to me—a statement that members of the public can see, explaining to them how their data that they will contribute through the app, is to be governed, the purpose that it will be used for and guarantees that it won't be used for purposes to which they have not given their consent. Because, in that way, we'll gather the public confidence that we will need if the app is to be used in the way that would deliver the benefits that would be there for all of us. 

Plaid Cymru leader, Adam Price.

Yesterday, First Minister, you published figures that show that there were 1,239 deaths registered in care homes in April in Wales compared to 417 for the same month last year—an increase of 200 per cent. Now, you just said, in terms of care homes where there hasn't been a confirmed or suspected outbreak, that clinical advice wasn't in favour of testing residents in that case. But you are doing that now, aren't you, for care homes that have 50 residents or above? And isn't the reason why you're not applying that policy to smaller care homes because you don't have the availability of testing, which means that you don't have the capacity for testing every home?

Llywydd, can I thank Adam Price for drawing attention to the figures that were published yesterday? They'll be part, now, of a regular series in which we put into the public domain, in one place, drawing together the very sobering facts of the impact of coronavirus on care homes here in Wales. Members will be able to see that every week.

And can I thank Adam Price as well for pointing to that variation on my answers to Paul Davies? Because there was evidence—Members will be able to find it amongst the citations I offered earlier—that, in larger care and nursing homes, there is a clinical point to testing even non-symptomatic settings, and that's because the larger homes are more susceptible—are more susceptible—to the spread of coronavirus, for a number of different reasons. They're often focused more in the nursing home end of the care home sector, and, as Adam Price will know, having seen the figures, there is a greater concentration of deaths in care where nursing is part of care than in the rest of the sector, as you might expect given that coronavirus attacks people with underlying health conditions.

And another reason why larger care homes have been treated differently is because they have a larger number of people going in and out of them. And the more traffic there is between the outside world and a care home, the greater the risk becomes that coronavirus will be imported into the care home—whether that is by workers coming back and forth, whether it is in the rare occasions where family members may visit somebody who is terminally ill; the more visits there are to a care home, the higher the risk becomes, and the bigger the care home, the more visitors and staff members going in and out there will be. And those are amongst the reasons why the advice was that testing of asymptomatic people in the larger care homes did have a clinical purpose that we have included that as part of our testing regime.

First Minister, if there is, potentially, scientific evidence that suggests that testing in a care home with 50 residents, without an outbreak, has clinical value, how is it possible that testing in a care home with 49 doesn't? Isn't that an entirely arbitrary threshold?

Well, it is arbitrary in that it's not fine tuned to say that you could put it immediately between 49 and 51. Whenever you have a border, there is a degree of arbitrariness about it. But the advice that we had was that, in broad terms, a care home with 50 or more people in it was more vulnerable to the introduction of coronavirus, even when there is none circulating in the care home today. That was the number that was advised to us as the best place to draw the line. In its specifics, it has a component of arbitrariness about it, as any number does, but it is not plucked out of the air, it is derived from the science that lies behind it, the nature of the care home sector, and the advice that then goes to Ministers.

The leader of the Brexit Party, Mark Reckless.

First Minister, you announced in your framework for recovery document on Friday, 24 April that, before lifting lockdown restrictions, your Government would assess whether measures had a high positive equality impact, if they provided any opportunities for widening participation and a more inclusive society, and whether they were consistent with the Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015 and an equal and greener Wales. You referenced that approach again in your statement today, and your being most concerned about social and environmental justice. You've also said that any easing of restrictions had to be grounded in distinctively Welsh values.

But last week, you said that you wanted restrictions to be lifted on a common, four nations basis. I wonder then whether you consulted the UK Government about your equality tests before publishing them? If restrictions are lifted on a common basis, how can this be grounded in distinctively Welsh values? Have you persuaded the UK Government to adopt these, along with your equality tests and the requirements of the Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015?

Finally, can you confirm if equality means that, were I to send my children to Welsh-speaking schools, they could go back early, but if I send them to an English-speaking school, you would make them stay at home?

Llywydd, I didn't seek permission from the UK Government before publishing this document of the Welsh Government—of course, I didn't. But I said, when I published the framework, that I regarded it as a contribution to a discussion that I thought needed to go on across the whole of the United Kingdom. And the Scottish Government published a similar document, as a contribution outlining their thinking to the way in which together we can craft a path out of the lockdown we are all facing today.

I'm absolutely unashamed about putting the equality impact of any of those measures at the heart of the way that we would think about it here in Wales. It's why the Senedd passed the Well-being of Future Generations Act, with a more equal Wales as one of its seven goals. In my statement I set out the sobering facts about the disproportionate impact on black and minority ethnic communities of coronavirus. And the steps that we take need to be measured against the impact that they will have on different communities in Wales to make sure that the burden of dealing with the disease does not fall disproportionately on one part of Welsh society rather than another. I'm very proud of the fact that we put equality right at the front of our considerations, and I certainly advocate that in my discussions with UK Ministers as well.

The Member would do better to resist his instinctive reach for opportunity to set one part of Welsh society against another. He's referring, I know, to an answer I gave to a question about how we were planning to return children to school in Wales. And as an illustration I said that we were looking at groups where there was a particular case for putting them in the early phases of returning to school. And in that, I said that children in year 6—children going up to secondary school in September—that there would be a strong case for thinking about them as the group that you would want to bring back together early in the process because those children complete that important rite of passage alongside their classmates, whatever language they happen to be taught in and whatever language they happen to speak at home.

I mentioned children with behavioural needs, who rely on the rhythm of the school day and whose parents struggle to look after them for 24 hours every day in the confines of their home, as a group who might have an early call on returning to school. 

And I mentioned those young people in Wales who we are so proud to have in Welsh-medium education, who come from homes where not a word of Welsh is normally spoken and who will now have been out of the Welsh-speaking milieu for many weeks. And I identified them, again, as a group that you might want to think of as having a particular case for earlier introduction to school, alongside all those others. Trying to pit one part of our school population against another and to create some sense of grievance, again—it does no credit to the Member and it certainly isn't the way we think about things in Wales. 

I'm grateful to you, First Minister, for that. I asked you two weeks ago how committed you were to the four-Government approach, and you said that you remained absolutely committed to that. And, in principle, that's something that I agree with—I would always prefer to see the four Governments of the United Kingdom working together, sharing information and sharing experience and working to ensure that we do have a common approach.

But in the last few days, we've seen the UK Government failing in a profoundly disturbing way. We see now that the UK death toll is the highest in Europe—second only to Trump's America. And I think there is a need for us to question whether linking ourselves too closely to a UK Government that is clearly failing is something that we have to do in the future. And so I would very gently seek, First Minister, to question that again, and to ask you whether you are continuing to look at Governments that are succeeding in dealing with this virus in different parts of the world and not simply looking eastwards to a Government that is not succeeding. I think that's an important question to look at. 

The second question I have—

No, no. You've asked your first question and you've exceeded your time for the session. First Minister to respond. 

Well, can I thank Alun Davies for that? And, actually, I don't think my position is different to the one that he set out, because I too believe that the principle of trying to work on a four-nation basis across the United Kingdom is an important one, but that would not mean that I would be willing to adopt in Wales policies known to be failing elsewhere. So, it is not a slavish adherence to that principle; it is the lens I want to use—I want a four-nation approach. I have been working hard this week with other Governments in the United Kingdom to try to bring that about. But it's—. We've always said that if we need to do things differently in Wales, because that is the right thing to do, that is what we will do, and that's a really important principle as well. 

And we do, Llywydd, continue to learn lessons from around the globe. Every week, I receive reports of developments, either directly because of conversations the chief medical officer has in Sweden, in Germany and South Korea, for example, or in literature searches that we are carrying out inside the Welsh Government to track what is going on in parts of the world where the lockdown has been lifted already, to see what is working, to see what does not appear to be working, and then to feed that information into our thinking so that we identify the measures that we think have the greatest chance of success, wherever that evidence comes from around the world. 

First Minister, I was surprised that there was no reference in your statement today to the seventy-fifth anniversary of VE Day, which, of course, will be marked on Friday. Lots of people around Wales and the rest of the United Kingdom and, indeed, the whole of Europe will be celebrating the defeat of the evils of Nazism and fascism across Europe on Friday. And, of course, we'll have the opportunity as well to remember those who lost their lives in the conflict that was the second world war, and indeed those heroes who are still amongst us who helped to achieve that tremendous victory—all of the key workers, if you like, alongside those who are on the front lines fighting in battles.  

There are some people in Wales, including some individuals who are Members of the Senedd, who said that they will not be celebrating this Friday, because they don't feel that a celebration of these things is appropriate. I will certainly be celebrating, First Minister. Can I ask, will you be too? And what plans are there to mark this important milestone in our history once this particular pandemic is under control?

Well, Llywydd, can I thank Darren Millar for that question, for the opportunity to say something about the seventy-fifth anniversary, and to thank him for the assiduous way in which he makes sure that we are thinking about these events and how we mark them?

I spent a good part of yesterday afternoon in a series of conversations over the telephone and by video link with Welsh veterans of VE Day, and they were wonderful conversations. I think the youngest person I spoke to was 94 years old and the oldest person I spoke to was 100 years old, from Aberystwyth. All of them full of memories of their time, and full of sadness as well, because for them VE Day—it is a matter of celebration of what was achieved, but it's also a matter of profound sorrow for those people who they knew and who stood alongside and who didn't survive the war in the way that they did. And I didn't speak to a single person who didn't mention by name somebody else who had been close to them and who wasn't a survivor as they were. But they were wonderful conversations. It was fantastic to see people managing technologies that they never thought they would need to and having those conversations by Skype and by Zoom and all other things we have to do.

I will certainly be marking VE Day myself. I'll be at the cenotaph here in Cardiff at 11 o'clock on Friday, as part of our national marking of that moment, and it's being marked, as Members will know, in very different ways because of the time that we are in. And then we do need to look beyond the time to see what we will be able to do when we're better able to get together again, and discussions are going on so that when the moment comes that we're able to do things in ways that we are more used to, we won't have forgotten the need to make sure that marking VE Day will be something we'll be able to do in the future as well as on Friday.

Could you tell us what discussions are ongoing on having a hub for prisoners in Bangor, in my constituency? I am given to understand that there is a proposal in place to create a hub in Bangor for prisoners who come originally from all parts of north Wales and are released early because of the current crisis. Now, neither myself nor the MP for Arfon in Westminster have received any official information about those discussions. When were you intending to discuss this with us? And if there is a plan in place, as I'm given to understand there is, then what exactly is being discussed, where will the resources and expertise come from to maintain this hub, and what will be the arrangements for accommodating these vulnerable people after the crisis is done?

Well, Llywydd, I've seen nothing on that issue. I've received no advice, I've had no discussions at all, and I haven't heard about the possibility until I heard Siân Gwenllian's comments today. So, of course, I'm willing to pursue the issue to see whether there have been any discussions anywhere within the Welsh Government, and if there is anything behind what Siân has heard, then I'd be happy to write to her and to provide her with further detail, but I haven't heard anything to date.

[Inaudible.]—decision by Welsh Government in respect of the payment of £500 to care workers, can I just suggest this is a first step in what must eventually become a new deal for our public sector workers? Can I ask what progress is being made to persuade the UK Government to waive the tax in these payments, as indeed happened during the flooding crisis?

And also, First Minister, can you confirm that the Welsh Government will have regard during the process of any relaxation to the advice of the Wales TUC? I've had colleagues from England praising Wales for the steps the Welsh Government did take with regard to regulating social distancing in the workplace. So, can I have an assurance that strict safety guidelines and regulations will be implemented to make sure that workplace safety and travel to work is more than just 'good enough', as has been suggested by some UK Ministers, but that it will be paramount? I think that after commemorating Workers' Memorial Day, can I suggest that anything less is not acceptable, and ask that the Welsh Government will always put the public and workers' safety first in their decision-making process?

Llywydd, I thank Mick Antoniw for both of those questions. Our £500 is there to recognise the amazing contribution, the brave contribution, that workers providing direct personal care for people in our care sector are making during the crisis. When the crisis is over, I entirely agree with Mick Antoniw—we need to make sure that those people who have been so important in responding to the crisis are regarded as equally important afterwards and are rewarded in a way that we would want to see them rewarded.

Let me say again, because I said it at the time: the help of the Secretary of State for Wales in making sure that the payments we made from the discretionary assistance fund to people who had been the victims of flooding—that that didn't count towards benefit calculations—was very helpful, and I hope that he will be able to be equally helpful to us here. We want every pound of that £500 to go directly to the people we are seeking to reward. It should be free of tax, it should be free of national insurance, and we raised this with the UK Government before making the announcement, and I know that my colleague Rebecca Evans has written to the Chief Secretary to the Treasury since, again, making the case for the UK Government to recognise the contribution that those workers are making, not just in warm words, but in the hard cash that we have found from the Welsh Government's budget and needs to go to those people and not be siphoned back to the Treasury in tax and national insurance contributions.

And on the involvement of the Wales TUC and of unions more generally, the point, Llywydd, that I make and try to make to UK Government Ministers is that unless we can convince people that it is safe to go back to work, then you can open whatever you like, people won't turn up there if they feel that they are putting themselves at risk. One of the best ways of being able to demonstrate to a workforce that all reasonable steps have been taken to making that workplace safe, is to have the trade union say alongside you that those actions have been taken. So, the trade unions have a really pivotal role and a positive role in demonstrating to workforces that going back to work is safe, because they themselves have been involved in those preparations. That's the way we're trying to do it here in Wales. I think most Welsh employers have an appetite to do it in just that way. And Alun Davies asked about learning from one another and passing lessons to one another. The way that we have put our 2m rule into regulations, the way in which we regard trade unions as central partners in making workplaces safe, I think that's something that could be learnt by other parts of the United Kingdom.

The £500 bonus for our social care workers is very welcome indeed, but will you, First Minister, extend the bonus to our selfless army of unpaid carers as the director of the Royal College of Nursing in Wales has requested, explain why our local authorities know nothing about how this money is going to be received and distributed, and also whether social care staff going forward will be provided with a wage increase, just like some non-medical staff have been provided so in Cardiff?

I thank Janet Finch-Saunders for the welcome she gave to the £500. I don't think it is right to say that local authorities knew nothing about it. The Welsh Local Government Association welcomed it in quotes that they put out on the day that we announced it. We're working with local government through the Welsh Local Government Association, which is the collective voice of local authorities in Wales, to make sure that the money can reach the people we want it to get to in the best and quickest way, and I hope that she will agree with me that the whole of that £500 should go to those individuals.

I wish I could say to her that we could pay all workers in social care in Wales at least the living real wage, and we will be working with trade unions, local authorities and the sector to see how that might be achieved the other side of coronavirus. But, in order for us to be able to do that, we'll have to have the funds from Whitehall in order to be able to pay people the rate that I've heard her just support and we certainly would want to work towards, but we're not funded to do that at the moment and it would be great, the other side of coronavirus, if across the UK we were in a position to do that.

The UK Government is piloting a contact tracing app that asks users if they have any symptoms, and, if they do, for them and anyone they've come into contact with to self-isolate for 14 days. Now, testing, tracing and isolating are together surely the key to stopping the spread of the virus, and, for the app to be effective, 60 per cent of the population have to download it. But, as has already been said today, some people may be reticent to download it due to privacy concerns, partly because of Dominic Cummings's involvement and the UK Government's decision to opt for a centralised data system rather than a decentralised data system like other states.

Now, additionally, the Scottish First Minister has said that, in order for the app to be effective, it needs to be complemented by testing, tracing and isolating teams on the ground. So, First Minister, do you have confidence that people's data will be kept safe and it won't be misused if they do download the app, and, further, what plans does the Welsh Government have to establish testing, tracing and isolating teams on the ground in Wales? 

I thank Delyth Jewell for those. I have confidence that the UK Government wants to do the right thing in relation to privacy and the app. I had a chance to discuss this with UK Ministers and with the First Minister of Scotland yesterday, so I don't doubt their intentions. I think there is still a gap between the intention and being able to offer the guarantees that I think people will need in order to feel confident that their information is being shared for the purposes that they're prepared to share it and not vulnerable to being exploited for purposes for which they haven't given their permission. That's why I said in my answer to Paul Davies that I think the UK Government should publish a statement of privacy arrangements alongside the app, so people can go and see what guarantees are there, and if they're not able to provide those guarantees, and some other aspects of the app being confirmed, then the chances of 60 per cent of people using it will be diminished. I'd like to be able to recommend it to people in Wales, but I'll need to know that those things are properly in their place before I could make that positive step, but that's where I'd like to be.

And then, of course, Delyth Jewell is right that the app is only one aspect of all of this. You have to have, in that new world, community-based testing, tracing and isolating arrangements. The Public Health Wales leaked non-final paper that we've spent a bit of time talking about today is a detailed account of how we might be able to get to that position. It is being refined in further discussions. Local authorities, I think, will have a really important part to play in helping to populate the teams that we will need, partly because they have people who are not able to do the jobs they would normally do, and also because they have that local intelligence and understanding of populations on the ground.

We will work over this week to identify the number of tests we really think we will need, the number of contact tracers we really think we will need, the split between people who will be contacted and traced online by the telephone and on foot—because you have to have some bits of all of that—and then we will publish our implementation plan demonstrating how those systems will be achieved here in Wales.

First Minister, on 17 April, you stated that lockdown could remain even in Wales—. I'll start again. First Minister, on 17 April, you stated that lockdown in Wales would remain even if it were lifted elsewhere. On 27 April, you said that Wales could come out of lockdown before the rest of the UK. On 1 May, you were quoted as saying that Wales could come out of lockdown the same time as the rest of the UK. Well, you seem to be flip-flopping all over the place and not giving any kind of confidence to the public or indeed to business. So, a very simple question is: do you actually know what you're doing? And if you do, what is the plan to come out of lockdown?

The very simple answer is 'yes'. We published our plan in the framework document that we set out. Of course, all three possibilities that the Member has outlined are still possible. My preference, as I've already said this afternoon and many times, is that we come out of lockdown on a common set of measures and a common timetable across the United Kingdom. If that's wrong for Wales, then we won't do that. If we had to stay in lockdown longer because that was right for Wales, we'd do that. If it was possible to release some measures in Wales safely because it was right for Wales ahead of others, we would do that. That's why we're the Government of Wales.

Diolch, Llywydd. First Minister, the Welsh Government has followed and expanded upon the UK Government's policy of supporting businesses, with more funding and grants available here in Wales, particularly if you're self-employed, but do we know how much has been given to Welsh businesses from the UK Government schemes and in particular to some of our anchor companies such as Airbus and Tata, who are already highlighting their concerns over the future of their businesses? And, I know that, in particular, Tata has requested far more than the cap that's currently on CBILS. Are you aware as to what progress is being made by UK Government on supporting these anchor companies in Wales?

And, finally, First Minister, I've literally just received an e-mail from a care home manager, within the last 15 minutes, who has cases of COVID in his home, but, when contacting Public Health Wales on Monday, he was told that, because they're not new cases, he will not get tested. Can you ensure that Public Health Wales know the new guidelines so that, in homes where there is COVID, all residents can be tested and staff can be tested?

Well, on the final point, of course I can guarantee that Public Health Wales are very well aware of the new guidelines. I'm afraid I can't respond to an individual e-mail, but there will be ways in which that care home can pursue that and should do.

On the first and largest set of questions David Rees asked, I don't have, and I'm not sure whether it is even publicly available—I certainly don't have in my head—a breakdown of the help that Welsh businesses have so far received from the UK schemes. So, just to repeat again, Llywydd, this afternoon, I welcome all those schemes and I'm very glad the UK Government has put them in place, and I'm sure there will be a point at which it will be possible to see how much of that help has been received here in Wales. Quite certainly, to agree strongly with what David Rees said about Airbus and Tata, as two absolutely major and fundamental employers here in Wales, both of them with global crises on their hands in aerospace and in steel making, I give David Rees an assurance that my colleague Ken Skates has been in direct and close contact with Tata management and with the management of Airbus, looking to see the things that we can do here in Wales. For example, on the skills agenda, where we remain willing and keen to do the things that we can do to help, but where the big issues—energy in the case of Tata, for example—are issues that lie in the hands of the UK Government, where the need to attend to them has been there for many, many months past, and is now urgently needed in order to secure the long-term health of those very important industries.

In the meantime, we go on using our £500 million economic resilience fund, which is not simply focused on the major companies themselves, but very importantly on supply chains, making sure that if large companies get into trouble, we're attending to the impact that that will have, the knock-on effect it will have on their supply chains as well.

We have all had to sacrifice a great deal of freedom, and I think it's very damaging for social unity when people in my constituency see visitors to the area that don't have to make the same sacrifices. People tell me that they still see it as being very busy in terms of visitors in their areas. And the more robust we can we be now, I think, the less tension will be created. It's important that we do reduce that tension because we look forward to seeing tourism reviving again. I do agree with the message of your letter to the police and local government, telling people to stay away from second homes and holiday accommodation, and so on. You say that that includes people who are already here. You say that leaving or staying somewhere they should not be visiting, without good reason, constitutes a criminal offence. Well, if it is a criminal offence, then shouldn't we empower the police more on this, including the possibility of heavier fines?

Well, of course we are always open to keeping a close eye on the powers available to the police currently and what we are doing through—

—things that we do in terms of fining and making the impact of the measures the police can take effective. The information we've always had from the police week by week is that they have what they need. Now, if that changes in the future, then, of course, we will think about that and see what we can do.

The actual evidence we have is that trips being made by people in Wales are stable. The number of trips made on 7 April and 28 April—two dates on which there were census points—were practically identical. So, there's not a great deal of hard evidence that more trips are being made. But we're dealing with people's anxieties, of course, and bank holidays create particular anxieties that they will encourage people to make journeys that are not essential and should not be made. That's why I wrote an open letter, alongside the police service, alongside the leader of the Welsh Local Government Association, just trying to get that message across to people.

We are still all subject to the restrictions that Rhun ap Iorwerth referred to. Unnecessary journeys are not allowed in the current arrangements. Taking a trip to the beach, travelling a long distance to go to Snowdonia—that's not allowed under these arrangements. People shouldn't do it and, if they do, the police in Wales will take action.

The cost of the current lockdown will be felt not just in financial terms but also in healthcare terms. Cancer Research UK recently said that we're missing 2,300 cancers a week because of the reduction in GP referrals. It's clear that we need to spend a lot more money on health in the future, but we'll only be able to do that if we have a successful and growing economy.

The Office for Budget Responsibility has estimated that the cost of this lockdown will be anything from £500 billion to £1 trillion. The Government deficit in the UK is going to balloon by, perhaps, £300 billion this year—that's 20 times the entire Welsh Government budget. If we don't take some risks in getting the economy moving, and we have to take the risk that the infection rate of coronavirus will continue as it is—. So long as we can protect the vulnerable, or the most vulnerable, then does the First Minister agree that, if we are going to spend more on the health service in the future, we have, therefore, to get the economy back on its feet?

Well, there's something in what the Member says that I could agree with, because, of course, he is right that we have to make a success of the economy in order to be able to have the public services that we need. So, I agree with him in that very general proposition.

Where I can't agree with him is that this means that, provided we can protect the most vulnerable, we should be prepared to take risks with the health of other people. Because we're not talking about his health or my health, we are talking about the health of other people—other people who have children, who have families, and are not prepared to go down that road with him.

We will take the most careful and cautious steps forward—the steps that we believe will have the best impact for the minimal amount of risk, because any step beyond lockdown is a risk, but any sense of a cavalier approach to risk, in which we put people in harm's way knowingly, is certainly not something that I would be prepared to sign up to. 

As we open the economy up again, and I agree that we have to be able to do that, then we need to do it in ways that demonstrate to the people we are going to ask to go back to work that we have thought about those risks, we have mitigated those risks, we have taken all reasonable measures to make them safe in the workplace, that we are not going to create conditions in which coronavirus simply takes off again and spreads like wildfire through the whole of the population, creating huge spikes again in hospital admissions, overwhelming critical care capacity and so on. 

It's where you put yourself on the risk spectrum, and I want us to be at the part of the spectrum that demonstrates to people in Wales that we have seen everything we do through that public health lens, and we're not going to ask anybody to take a risk that we could have avoided. 

It has been mentioned several times this morning that we're paying carers—rightly, in my opinion—a £500 payment in recognition of what they do. But what hasn't been mentioned this morning, and it was brought to my attention by a constituent who lives in Montgomeryshire, but works over the border, is that they won't be receiving that. Now, I hope that you will agree to join with me with the newly elected Tory MP in Montgomeryshire and also in Powys to seek assurances that these inequalities that exist, because we've put it in place and England haven't, could be addressed. It is completely unfair in that respect. 

And the other thing that hasn't been mentioned about positive changes to our benefits for people in Wales is the additionality that we are paying and the difference between that for free-school-meal recipients. It's £15 in England per week and it's £19.50 per week in Wales. And, again, it really does demonstrate the difference between the thinking between a Tory and a Labour Government about who really needs help and who is actually getting it.

Can I thank Joyce Watson very much for that question and for bringing us back to what was one of the main focuses of my original statement, which was the inequality impact of coronavirus and the fact that the burden is being felt by some people far more than others and the actions we've taken as a progressive Welsh Government to try to mitigate that?

Now, our £500 payment is based on your place of work, rather than the place where you live. So, Joyce is absolutely right, there are anomalies. There will be people living in England working across the border in Wales who will get the £500 payment, and there are people living in Wales and working in England who won't. The answer to it, as Joyce Watson has said, is simple: make a payment in England as well, and find the funding, as we have found, to do that. I hear Conservative Ministers very regularly on the television telling us how much they value everything that those care workers are doing. What we've tried to do, and it's in a modest way, but it sends an important symbolic message, certainly, is that we've tried to put some of our money where our sentiments have been.

And the same is true of free school meals. We're all rightly worried about the impact of coronavirus on vulnerable families and children who otherwise would have had the support of the school around them, and everything else that we mobilise in Wales to make sure that those families get the support that they need. Our investment in free school meals, the £40 million that we've announced, means that those children can be sure of being fed right through the school holidays, the long school holidays, which we know are such a struggle for so many families. It is more than is being paid elsewhere, but we've always put more in this area. We've always had, throughout this Assembly term, a scheme of feeding children during the long school holiday—a national scheme, paid for through the Welsh Government. We're very proud to be able to continue that, and very grateful to Joyce for drawing attention properly to it this afternoon.

I thank the First Minister.