2. Will the Minister make a statement on support for businesses in South Wales Central in light of the coronavirus pandemic? OQ55825

Yes, of course. We're doing everything possible to support businesses across all parts of Wales. In the Vale of Glamorgan, for example, 612 microbusinesses and small and medium-sized enterprises have been awarded funding through the Wales-only economic resilience fund, securing thousands of jobs, and, of course, our £200 million-package of lockdown business grants is still open for applications.

Thank you, Minister, for that answer. Obviously, regrettably, one line of support—the business development grant— was closed after 24 hours. In one message it said that it was for assessment of the bids, and the other message said that it had been fully subscribed. Can the Minister give any confidence today to the argument that this fund should be reopened, if it attracts additional funding from within Government, and that those that had applied and, sadly, had not been successful will get a second chance if the fund is reopened?

Well, I can say to Andrew R.T. Davies that we are currently assessing the applications that have been made so far. Indeed, money has already been awarded. As part of the economic resilience fund, phase 3 has already delivered more than £40 million of awards to businesses. There was a need to act with urgency in each of the phases. That includes phase 3. That's why we paused the process of the development grant applications, so that we can assess them swiftly, so that we can get money out to businesses. There's been some misunderstanding as to the purpose of the development grants. These are development grants; they are not emergency cash awards. That's the local business lockdown fund that is available to all businesses still. Of course, we will be learning from the applications that have been submitted so that we can shape a fourth phase of the economic resilience fund to business needs, and if that means developing a new form of development grant funding, then that will be made available to businesses. We are currently working on a mechanism for expressions of interest to be made through the Business Wales website. So, I would say to any business that intended to apply, 'Hold on to your applications and, importantly, hold on to all of your supporting documentary evidence as well because that could be crucially important in the weeks to come as we move from economic resilience fund phase 3 through to economic resilience fund phase 4.'

Since COVID, the Royal Mail service in the Rhondda has deteriorated dramatically. Constituents have reported examples like a first-class letter taking eight days to get from Porth to Pentre, and another six days to get from Porth to Pontypridd. People are being told to make appointments with the sorting office in Clydach if they can't wait for urgent mail. Now, this would be bad enough in normal times, but with increasing numbers of people working from home, and increasing numbers of people waiting for urgent medical appointments, this is hampering the local economy, as well as people's health. I wrote to the Royal Mail almost a month ago, asking them for improvements and for an explanation, and I'm still waiting for a reply. In the light of the problems this is causing to so many people in so many communities in the Rhondda, what can the Government do to address this issue? Can you remind the Royal Mail of their responsibilities and their duties to our communities right throughout this country?

Can I say to Leanne Wood that I'm very, very disappointed to learn about the level of service that's being offered to her constituents in the Rhondda? And, of course, whilst businesses must operate in a COVID-safe way, which can sometimes lead to delays in terms of the services that are provided, this is disappointing news, and I will make enquiries on behalf of the local Member, taking up the issue with Royal Mail. As soon as I hear back, I will be in touch.

Minister, many tens of thousands of workers in Wales are employed on a self-employed basis, or as freelancers. Many of my constituents are in that situation, and, of course, the main source of support for them has been the self-employed income support scheme. Now, can I firstly say how important to those individual businesses the cultural resilience fund has been—the freelancers fund—and many people have benefitted from that. But the main source of support is obviously UK Government support. Now, there are five million self-employed people in the UK, which leads to about probably 250,000 to 300,000 or more within Wales, which means that, literally, 50,000, 60,000, 70,000 of them will be getting no support whatsoever. Many of them are my constituents, and I've had representations from them to this effect. What more can be done to actually support the self-employed and freelancers? What representations are being made to the UK Government in respect of the self-employed income support scheme? The Confederation of British Industry and the Institute of Directors described the fund as wasteful, misdirected and badly targeted. Do you agree with that, and do you agree that there's a need for a real new initiative to support self-employed workers within Wales?

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.