2. Will the First Minister make a statement on Welsh Government support for professional sport? OQ55449

I thank Mike Hedges for that, Llywydd. Our economic resilience fund has been open for applications from professional sports organisations, and over £0.75 million pounds has been provided to the sector as a result.

First Minister, thank you for your response. I want to stress the importance of professional sport. Since March, professional sport in Wales has either not been playing or been played without spectators. Professional sports clubs like the Ospreys and Swansea City football club are major employers in Swansea, as well as their importance as ambassadors for the area and the provision of entertainment. There is an urgent need for financial support for professional sport until spectators are allowed to return, unless we're facing the horrendous prospect of having no professional sport below international level. What further financial support is the Welsh Government proposing to give to professional sport in Wales until spectators can return?

Well, Llywydd, as I said, we have already provided significant financial support to a number of professional sports organisations in Wales—over £0.75 million in total. I'm pleased to say that some of those beneficiaries are directly in the Member's own area. And we have announced an £8.5 million sports resilience fund, and £4.5 million of that is for national governing bodies, and that will be of assistance to the sector as well.

But I want to agree with what Mike Hedges said about the importance of professional sport, both as significant employers in parts of Wales, but also the part that watching and enjoying professional sport plays in the lives of so many of our fellow citizens. When we will be in a position to return to spectators in large numbers at those events, I think it's too early, I'm afraid, to be able to say that.

In the meantime, while professional sport played behind closed doors clearly doesn't have the atmosphere and the attraction that it would otherwise, it can, however, be done successfully. As someone who spent most of the weekend listening to the test match, it was as gripping as a spectator remotely as it would have been had the ground been full.

First Minister, one way of supporting professional sport in Wales would be to relax the social distancing rules and allow Welsh stadiums to reopen. The chief executive of the English Rugby Football Union makes the point that reducing social distancing measures to 1m, which is the World Health Organization's recommendation and guidance, results in a capacity of 40,000 people in an 80,000 seater stadium, compared to fewer than 10,000 if 2m is adhered to. Given that the Welsh Rugby Union is facing forecast losses of some £107 million due to coronavirus, what discussions have you had with the WRU about introducing measures like relaxing social distancing measures to 1m to enable Wales to play its home matches in Welsh grounds?

Well, Llywydd, we've had a series of discussions with the WRU, and I've been involved directly in some of those myself. We are providing significant assistance already to the Welsh Rugby Union and are in discussions with them about further assistance that we may be able to provide.

The thought of 40,000 people coming together in a mass event is certainly not consistent with the approach to tackling coronavirus that we have had here in Wales. The risk that that would pose to the health of those people attending, and to those people who'd have to be employed in order to allow that to happen, is simply not within the realms of what a sensible approach to dealing with this global pandemic would suggest.