Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 2:23 pm on 26 August 2020.
Llywydd, can I thank Jenny Rathbone for those questions? I thank her particularly for what she said at the very beginning of her question. It does always worry me that, because in these sessions we concentrate on the fact that things have improved here in Wales, we don't sometimes pause to remember those families for whom coronavirus has been a very direct tragedy. And while the number of people dying from coronavirus in Wales has reduced significantly, there still are, every week, families who face that set of circumstances, and I thank the Member for just reminding us to pause a moment and think of all of that and what that will mean, not just now but for the future for those families too.
I'm glad to welcome what she said about the firm from the Cynon Valley manufacturing e-scooters. The legislation for private scooters is not actually devolved and it's the Department for Transport in the United Kingdom who is responsible for licensing and regulating their use. But we have worked with the UK Department for Transport to promote the option of trials here in Wales. It's for local authorities to express an interest in opting into those trials, and we've worked with the DfT to make sure that that is promoted—that possibility—here in Wales.
Of course, what Jenny Rathbone says, Llywydd, is right: bicycles are very hard to get hold of, and it's one of the more positive parts of the whole experience that people have become more interested in active travel. We've announced record investment in that here in Wales: £5 million of the £38 million announced recently by my colleague Lee Waters is specifically for safer routes in communities, and that is aimed specifically at routes to schools, and £2 million of the £15.4 million announced for COVID-proof travel has also been specifically set aside for schemes around schools. So, I hope very much that people will retain their interest in more active forms of travel, that schools grasp the opportunity that is there, and that the Welsh Government can play our part by making sure that funding is available and that, through the other actions we take—the Member referred to the actions that we're taking to support the recycling of cycles—we do our bit to make sure that more opportunities come people's way in that way too.