6. Will the Counsel General provide an update on the Our Future Wales consultation on support for future post-COVID-19 recovery and reconstruction? OQ55638

Since its launch in May, the 'Our Future Wales' consultation has been very successful. We received just over 2,000 submissions from stakeholders and members of the public, telling us about what matters to them. Those submissions have informed the priorities for recovery and reconstruction that we published yesterday.

Minister, could I thank you for joining me recently in an online event where you engaged very deeply and thoughtfully with dozens of questions from the public on post-COVID recovery and reconstruction? So, recognising the immense challenges ahead of the pandemic and of the EU 'deal' or 'no deal' scenarios, and without coming across all Johnsonian now, oozing fantasy optimism about 'world beating' this, 'moonshot' that, driving JCBs through flimsy polystyrene walls, is there any real note of optimism that he can give to the people of Wales—especially young people—about how we get through this well, and do it in a way that is better and fairer for our jobs and economy, better for our environment, and better and fairer for society as a whole?

I do think the point the Member makes is very important, because whilst the overall effect of COVID on our lives is obviously very detrimental, we have learnt to do things differently in some ways in the last few months, and we will want to hold onto those ways where they're better ways of proceeding.

So, in the economy, for example, we have seen, despite the overwhelming impact on businesses in Wales, that there have been opportunities for some businesses to look at different product lines in terms of personal protective equipment and so on and supplies to the NHS. And there's been a level of innovation in relation to that that has been positive for those businesses, and we want, obviously, to be able to encourage that. In relation to the way we've approached public services working together, delivering some of their services increasingly online—we've seen that in the health service; we've seen that in local government—that won't work for everybody but it'll work for a lot of people and it will allow reconfiguration of some of those services to deliver ever better services to people in Wales.

We've also seen—and he acknowledges this in his question—a renewed enthusiasm across the public, I would say, for making sure this is a green response to COVID. I know he will welcome the investment that's already been made in terms of active travel and in terms of renewables and in terms of similar interventions, and the document we published yesterday I think very hopefully describes an optimistic way of taking forward that agenda in relation to decarbonising our economy, supporting biodiversity, improving air quality, and also, at the same time, many of those interventions also help stimulate the economy, also help to create skills pipelines and provide a number of other benefits.

So, part of the message I wanted to make sure was conveyed yesterday was that some of the responses that the Government have necessarily are to mitigate the damage that COVID will have caused in the long term, but some of it is to identify those points of positivity that he suggests and to try and build on those.