4. What assessment has the Counsel General made of the number of jobs and businesses that will be lost in Wales due to the coronavirus crisis? OQ55443

We know that current assessments don't reflect the entire economic picture, with economists predicting that the full impact may not be felt until October or beyond. We are doing all that we can as a Government to mitigate the effects and our £1.7 billion package of support means Welsh businesses have access to the most generous help anywhere in the UK.

Thank you, Minister, for that answer. We saw last week many jobs, regrettably, being lost across the length and breadth of Wales. What I'm trying to understand is how your role in Government will assist the economic Minister, Ken Skates, in delivering support to make sure that we can retain as many jobs as possible, but also create new jobs across Wales. Can you enlighten me as to exactly how your role, with your panel of advisers, will support the Welsh Government in working with market intelligence to develop an economy that can create jobs and quality wages wherever you live in Wales?

Certainly. The role is to co-ordinate the Government's response in terms of planning for the reconstruction phase, as was set out in the joint statement with the Minister for Finance and Trefnydd yesterday. Policy responsibility for economic interventions obviously remains with the Minister for the Economy and Transport and North Wales. The task with which I'm engaged is to help co-ordinate and get the best possible understanding of what the likely impacts are going to be on Wales of various aspects of COVID, and for that to become a shared platform across Government, so that we can work in a joined-up way to address some of the challenges that his question suggests—so, some of the skills interventions, understanding the particular focus that they may need to have, how they relate to other questions around, for example, FE, HE and other support that young people in particular might need. So, it's to make sure there's a common understanding across Government, informed by the best possible level of engagement and expertise, that we identify both the risks that we need to address, and also, to reflect the point the John Griffiths made in his question earlier, where there are opportunities arising from that, that we're able to spot them in a timely fashion and support others to take advantage of them.

Last week's news of the potential 450 redundancies at the Celtic Collection, which owns the Celtic Manor Resort and the international convention centre in my constituency, was a blow to Newport and the surrounding area. I understand that 610 jobs out of the 995 have been put in the at-risk category. The Celtic Manor has been a success story for Newport and Wales, and the new international conference centre, which has Welsh Government funding, has added a new string to the bow. The Celtic Collection's staff have been ever-present throughout and contributed heavily to that success. They will surely be needed once again when the pandemic passes. The amount of small businesses in the supply chain is extensive. What discussions has the Counsel General had with Ministers and others about the future plan for the resort and convention centre, and will the Welsh Government do all it can to urge the company to avoid these job losses?

I thank the Member for that question. It's a very important issue and, I think, one of a number of very bleak predictions in terms of job losses in parts of Wales that we've seen in the last few weeks. The tourism and hospitality industry has been particularly adversely impacted, obviously, by COVID, in the way that we heard discussed in First Minister's questions earlier today. It has been part of our objective through the economic resilience fund to make available financial support to parts of that sector. I know that Celtic Manor Resort itself has benefited to some extent from that. Also, we will want to understand what more we can do working alongside the UK Government, who've made some announcements in terms of the statement last week. But we would say that, actually, there are some sectors in Wales that need specific support into the future, specific sectoral employment protection schemes, effectively, in order to be able to give the level of protection that we think may be needed, and obviously this is one sector that has been particularly adversely affected. But she will have our commitment, obviously, as a Government, to work with the Celtic Manor and any other employers facing this situation, as we've heard examples of in the Chamber already this morning.