Businesses in South Wales Central

Part of 1. Questions to the Minister for Economy, Transport and North Wales – in the Senedd at 1:44 pm on 11 November 2020.

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Photo of Ken Skates Ken Skates Labour 1:44, 11 November 2020

I think there's always more that could be done in terms of being responsive and responsible. We are pressing UK Government to be more responsible and responsive to the needs of self-employed people and freelancers, to those people who continue to fall through the gaps, who have yet to receive support in the way that Mick Antoniw has identified. And, here in Wales, we have plugged many of those gaps with the creation, as has been noted already, of the culture recovery fund, the freelancer fund. The discretionary assistance fund has received additional financial support, and, of course, we've established discretionary awards for local authorities to make, amounting to £25 million, and those grants are available to sole traders, obviously subject to certain criteria. But this shows how we are stepping up, plugging gaps created by UK Government support schemes. But we continue to press the UK Government to do more to address the needs of self-employed people and freelancers.