3. Will the Counsel General make a statement on the work the Welsh Government is doing to Build Back Better during and after Covid-19? OQ55460

The Minister for Finance and Trefnydd and I have just issued a recent statement outlining the next steps in relation to our plans for stabilisation and reconstruction as a Government, which are informed by the views of the public, by stakeholders and by the challenge provided by external experts. We are clear that our aim is not to return to normal, but to seek to address the challenges that COVID has highlighted and, indeed, exacerbated.

It is important that we find some positives amongst the general suffering and difficulty of COVID-19, and I welcome the work that you are doing, Counsel General, to build back better.

One aspect of recent months that people have appreciated is the reduced volume of traffic on our roads, but there are fears, of course, that because of the anxieties about using public transport, as we emerge from the restrictions there may be a substantial increase in road traffic. Here in Newport, of course, traffic on the M4 around the Brynglas tunnels is a key issue for us. So, looking forward, Counsel General, will you look at building back better in terms of improving public transport to deal with the issues of getting people out of their cars, for those journeys along the M4 route, and, in particular, look at rail services between Cardiff, Newport and Bristol, with more stops in between and new rail stations?

I thank John Griffiths for that question, and just want to confirm that our approach, absolutely, is to put at the heart of our response and the heart of our reconstruction that ongoing commitment to climate change, to an improved environment. We have all seen, I think, haven't we, because of the necessary change of behaviour that people in Wales have been prepared to undertake, if you like, the improvement in clean air from lower traffic and reduced flights and so on. We want to do all we can to make sure that we don't lose that benefit.

The Member will have seen, perhaps, the investment that Lee Waters announced recently in active travel funding for local authorities to bring forward schemes to encourage active travel in and around our towns, and also the work that Ken Skates and Lee Waters have been doing in relation, specifically, to the point that he makes, which is how we can come out of this crisis, this pandemic, in a way that supports our public transport networks to deliver a better service in future than they've been able to deliver in the past, so that we can continue to drive up use of public transport over time.

I think the bus emergency scheme that the Welsh Government announced recently, with the prospect that that holds of deploying our funding as a Government in a way that drives some of those outcomes better than we've been able to do the past, is a very positive indication of the kinds of lessons that we are learning, coming out of COVID, and our appetite as a Government not simply to turn the clock back to the circumstances that were the case as we entered into the pandemic.

Minister, I must admit that I do like the expression 'build back better', it's got a certain catchiness to it, but, of course, what matters is that it actually works on the ground and that we do see really positive policy changes to make sure that there is change as we come out of the pandemic. Whilst I would agree with all of those areas that John Griffiths rightly cited as areas for improvement, above all of those, I would suggest that the Welsh Government looks seriously again at digital infrastructure and broadband, because if we can get broadband connections right, then there'll be less reliance in the first instance on public transport, on the motor car, on our road network. I know that there are many people who've been working from home over the last few months who would like to go on doing that as much as possible if that infrastructure was there. So, could you tell us what you are doing to make sure that, as we build back better, we build back broadband better—that's a bit difficult to say—as we come out of the pandemic so that we are taking that pressure off other modes of transport at the very outset?

Well, I do absolutely accept that the difference in the work patterns that we've seen over the last few weeks, if they are to be sustained, will change the demands on our digital infrastructure, and it has an impact that could be quite pervasive, really, in terms of residential development and all sorts of other issues around geography.

The broadband investments that we've made as a Government have been made in order to plug gaps in the UK Government's failure to reach the parts of Wales that we would have hoped that they had done. That has been our approach. It's been a successful approach. What I think needs to happen is a UK-wide investment commitment from the UK Government to upgrade our infrastructure in a way that benefits all parts of the UK equally, and I hope that is something that we'll see coming forward in future.