5. Will the First Minister provide an update on Welsh Government support for businesses affected by COVID-19? OQ55386

I thank the Member for that. Our £1.7 billion-worth package of support means Welsh businesses have access to the most generous help anywhere in the United Kingdom. Over 2,700 Caerphilly-based companies alone have benefited from business rate relief. The second phase of the economic resilience fund opened on Monday of this week.

Diolch, First Minister. Can I say, first of all, it's such a relief that this is the last week we'll have this wholly unsatisfactory way of doing business, and it'll be good to be back in a hybrid model next week, and I thank the Llywydd for helping with that decision?

Many businesses and charitable organisations in Caerphilly have been supported by Welsh Government in the form of grants and rate relief, and it's helped to plug the gap left by UK Government support. I welcome the announcement last week of Government support for those start-up firms who only began trading in 2019, meaning that they would have missed out on the UK Government's self-employment income support scheme. But I am aware of some small businesses in particular who are continuing to miss out. I was contacted by a constituent who runs a hairdressers in Bargoed. Her business is unable to receive any support because she's a sole trader and doesn't have to be VAT registered, which she isn't. This is unfair as similar businesses who are limited companies don't have to be VAT registered, nor can she claim any form of rate relief as she's only a tenant at her premises. As a result, she can no longer afford to pay her staff or her overheads. What more can the First Minister and the Welsh Government do to support her and other small businesses like hers who are rooted in our Valleys communities?

Well, Llywydd, I thank Hefin David for what he said about the new £5 million grant supporting start-up businesses. We anticipate it will support up to 2,000 businesses in Wales, and it is an example of filling a gap in the schemes that the UK Government has devised. I always take this opportunity to recognise the help that the UK Government has provided, and to say that it is inevitable, in very large, very rapidly constructed schemes, that there will be some blunt edges and gaps that will emerge, and our £500 million economic resilience fund has always been aimed at finding the gaps in the schemes that the UK Government has put in place and then to try to fill them here in Wales. We aren't able to fill every gap; it's just not possible within the scope of what we have. But, we continue to review the economic resilience fund to see whether we can do more through it. Where there are examples where the structure of the help that is available creates gaps that firms fall through, then we're always open to hearing about that and to see if there are further ways in which we can assist. 

Leanne Wood. You need to unmute yourself, Leanne Wood.

Okay. Sorry, I thought I had. I want to ask about support for the arts. The arts are vitally important for our culture, for our language, and potentially for tourism as well. Many people working in the arts are freelancers or gig economy workers who may—or probably haven't had any support from the Government so far. Large audience events are unlikely to be safe for people in the old way soon, and so, what happens to the firm of public address system operators—four of them who work in my constituency—who are unable to have any work at the moment?

Would you be prepared to consider an idea that has been proposed to the Scottish Government for a national arts force, which would see the arts be a part of well-being and recovery, where musicians and artists can go into schools, hospitals and care homes, and even provide online courses? Imagine the PA firm being able to teach sound engineering skills to young people in the Rhondda throughout the summer holidays. Would you be prepared to look at that recommendation that has gone to the Scottish Government and consider a similar scheme to operate in Wales? We can't rely on the Westminster Government to plug this gap; it's something that the Welsh Government needs to do, and it needs to do it urgently.

Llywydd, I thank Leanne Wood for that. She'll know that my colleague Dafydd Elis-Thomas has published a lengthy written statement this week on support for the arts here in Wales. I'm very happy to look at the idea that Leanne Wood has set out. She's sounding quite like Franklin Delano Roosevelt in that, and a great deal more convincingly than others who have made claims to that mantle, if I may say so. So, we will, by all means, look at it.

This is another example, actually, Llywydd, of where the UK Government has constantly implied that it is on the brink of publishing a support package for a sector, just as it did for steel last week. So, for many weeks, it has trailed an imminent announcement about a package of support for the arts. That support package needs to come forward, and if it did, it would materially strengthen our ability to put into practice the sort of scheme that Leanne Wood has talked about this morning.