4. What assessment has the First Minister made of post-pandemic economic recovery in Wales? OQ55683

I thank David Rowlands for that question. Last week we published our COVID-19 reconstruction plan. It sets out our assessment of the profound economic, health and social impacts of the virus and how we will work with partners to build a safe, healthy future for Welsh people that is fairer, more equal, greener and prosperous.

I thank the First Minister for his answer. Whilst it is prudent to make such arrangements for the post-pandemic environment, it is also true that it is incumbent upon the Government to mitigate the economic consequences of lockdowns whilst the virus is still with us. The recent lockdown arrangements are of course having a devastating effect on businesses across Wales. However, First Minister, I do not want to question the merits or otherwise of the overall lockdown measures, but the absurdity of the recent restrictions where we are not allowed to travel from one local authority to another. There are parts of south Wales where you cannot, quite literally, cross the road or go to the end of the street, because in so doing you would be passing from one authority into the next. How can the Minister and his Government justify such ridiculous restrictions? Why is it necessary to prevent people travelling from one authority to the next when both are in lockdown and have similar COVID figures, yet for work purposes, people can travel into Wales from COVID-wracked cities like Liverpool? First Minister, it's important that we bring the people of Wales along with us in these very troubled times. Is it not true that such nonsensical restrictions will not help us to achieve this?

Llywydd, I've already said several times this afternoon that the answer to people being able to travel into Wales from higher coronavirus areas beyond Wales is to stop it from happening. It's not a nonsensical restraint to say to people that they shouldn't travel outside their own local authority area, because the more people we see, and the more travelling we do, the more the virus spreads. The restrictions are designed to try to bear down on the fact that coronavirus is rising in so many parts of Wales. Now, if we are able to do things in those parts of Wales where the measures we have taken so far are having an effect, then I want to offer people in those parts of Wales hope that their actions are bearing fruit. If we can do anything in the area of travel, that, I think, is one of the first things we would be likely to be able to offer. But the context that we are all operating in is one where the skies are darkening, and I'm afraid that everything we do has to be tested against that basic fact of contemporary life in Wales. Coronavirus is on the march again. It is reaching deeper and further into communities, it is driving more people into hospital, it will lead to greater use of our ICU beds, and very sadly, because this is a deadly disease, more people will die. And the restrictions we're asking people to live with are all designed to try to keep them, their families and their communities safe. And there's nothing nonsensical about that.

First Minister, your aim of having 30 per cent of people working from home is very laudable; however, to work from home, you almost certainly need to have a decent broadband connection. I have constituents who want to work from home but can't as they don't have adequate broadband, meaning they have no other option but to travel to work. How are you going to achieve your aim, First Minister, of homeworking when you have failed to deliver your 2011 manifesto commitment of delivering superfast broadband to all premises by 2015?

Well, Llywydd, thanks to the Welsh Government and its investment, thousands and thousands of households in Wales now do have access to superfast broadband and they certainly would not have had it without the intervention of the Welsh Government in this non-devolved area. Now, it's only a week ago that the leader of the Member's party was telling the people in Wales that he would prevent a future Government led by himself from spending money on non-devolved responsibilities. So, those families who've had the advantage of superfast broadband because of the way in which the Welsh Government has had to spend money on an area where his Government is responsible will find that those advantages are no longer available to them, in the remote possibility that his party might be in government here in Wales.

So, we will continue to invest, we will continue to ignore the advice of the leader of the Welsh Conservatives, we will put money into this non-devolved area, and more families in all parts of Wales, particularly those who are the hardest and the most expensive to reach, can know that, in Wales, they have a Government that is prepared to act on their behalf.