4. Will the First Minister make a statement on support for the hospitality sector in Wales in light of COVID-19? OQ55342

I thank the Member for that question. The package of support for the hospitality sector in Wales is the most generous in the United Kingdom. Thousands of businesses have benefited from 100 per cent small business rate relief and the Welsh Government's economic resilience fund. In total, over £330 million has been provided to assist the sector during the pandemic. 

Thank you. North Wales tourism businesses and organisations have said that, if tourism was allowed to open today, 10,500 tourism sector jobs could be lost in north Wales, and they cite your Government and you to be destroying this vital industry. To refute those claims, what support will you make available to businesses that cannot open on 13 July? Self-contained accommodation businesses and ensuite hotels desperately need a vision, with guidance on how to safely prepare. Will you provide this? Will you clarify exactly what you mean by self-contained accommodation, working with their local communities? Will you clearly state whether campsites with shared facilities can prepare to open if they close these? First Minister, your leadership on this issue has never been under any such scrutiny, and, I have to say, with much criticism. Diolch.

Well, I thank the Member for those questions. Of course the actions of Government are under scrutiny—so they should be. That's why we have answered questions on the floor of the Senedd every single week during this pandemic and will continue to do so.

As far as the self-contained sector within the tourism industry is concerned, of course we work with the sector to provide guidance and to answer their questions. It's guidance that is provided with the sector itself. We've been working with UKHospitality Cymru and the Wales Tourism Alliance to make sure that their best practice guidance for working safely in the visitor economy is there for everybody in preparation for the lifting of restrictions. Visit Wales has hosted three consultation events with over 100 representatives from the four tourism forums across Wales, as well as with industry representative bodies. The purpose of giving people notice that they should prepare is to make sure that, when questions arise, there is time to resolve those questions with the sector. And I know the sector is very much looking forward to being able to reopen and to do it in a way that is safe, in a way that safeguards the reputation of the sector, and when the sector can demonstrate that it has been able to do that successfully, then we will want to allow it to do more.

But there's a real reputational issue here for the sector, and to rush at it in the way that the Member suggests, without any proper preparation to open campsites with shared facilities, that will not be happening—let me assure her of that—in the first wave, because we know that coronavirus thrives in shared facilities. Why would we put the reputation of this really important industry in Wales at risk by allowing unsafe practices to take place? We won't do that. We will proceed in the way that we have set out: carefully, step-by-step, demonstrating success, allowing more to happen when that success has been demonstrated, in a way that will safeguard the long-term reputation of this vitally important industry in Wales.

The First Minister will be aware of the announcement this week by Castell Howell, a very important food business in my region, that they are consulting about redundancies. This is of course partly because they have depended on the hospitality sector as their customers. Will the First Minister commit today to ensuring that his Government and his officials work closely with the company to see if there's any way in which the redundancies can be avoided, and will he commit in future to reviewing Welsh Government procurement policies, so that companies like Castell Howell may be able to benefit further from them in future?

I'm very happy to do both of those things, Llywydd. Our officials will certainly work carefully with that very important company and we have an ambition to spend more of the Welsh pound on Welsh businesses. Some very important things have been achieved in sir Gâr in particular in recent times, in getting local food supplies into local communities.

The UK Government has a part to play here too, Llywydd. Its furlough scheme must not be a blunt instrument. Where there are parts of the economy that cannot reopen because of the longer term impacts of coronavirus, then it's important to those sectors that the furlough scheme—which I understand will have to be adapted; I understand it must be withdrawn from parts of the economy that are able to resume, but where that is not the case, and hospitality is certainly part of that, with the knock-on effects into other industries—then the furlough scheme needs to remain an important part in the armoury of the UK Government, supplemented by what we are able to do through our economic resilience fund, to go on supporting sectors and really important businesses like Castell Howell, so they are able still to have a successful future.