Questions Without Notice from Party Spokespeople

Part of 3. Questions to the Minister for Environment, Energy and Rural Affairs – in the Senedd at 12:54 pm on 24 June 2020.

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Photo of Lesley Griffiths Lesley Griffiths Labour 12:54, 24 June 2020

So, this assessment that I asked—this is my food division, that I asked—officials to have a look at, and we're doing it very closely with Food Innovation Wales—. Professor David Lloyd and Martin Jardine—you'll be very aware of both of them—are leading on this piece of work. And because I wanted it done very quickly, it's really important that we asked for assistance.

Will I be making it public? It's there to help us as Ministers and the Welsh Government to provide guidance for these companies. I don't know what there—. You know, if there were anything to say that I can't make it public—but, as you know, I'm a very transparent Minister, and, if I can make it public, then I'll be very happy to do so. I think it's really important that—the points that you raise. So, we know the virus can live much longer on cold stainless steel, for instance, than it does outside. So, clearly, for those of us who have been in those sorts of organisations and places, we know that they are very cold. Last week, we were told that noise can have an impact. So, again, some of these places are very noisy, so that could be having an impact too.

Clearly, the 2m distancing, in some areas—we've seen production lines—it is very difficult and I know companies have been very thorough in trying to maintain that, but clearly there are a lot of issues and the idea of having this rapid review was to see what was there and what we could help with, and I mentioned in my answer to Llyr that there is a lot of best practice, and, of course, companies and organisations are competitive, but I know everybody is really keen to share that best practice.