Part of 1. Questions to the Minister for Economy, Transport and North Wales – in the Senedd at 2:16 pm on 11 November 2020.
Can I thank Mandy Jones for her question and say that I entirely agree that the fortitude and innovation and the responsibility of businesses within the tourism and hospitality sector has been quite astonishing during the course of this pandemic? We wish to support businesses in every way that we possibly can to remain viable, to get through this pandemic. Of course, the risk of transmission in a regulated space is now less than the risk within a domestic dwelling, where there is the risk of multiple households mixing. Nonetheless, there still is the risk. And during the firebreak in particular, we had to make sure that any areas of activity where there is a risk involved in transmitting the virus—that that risk was either eliminated or brought down to an absolute minimum. That's why we took action for a very short period of time. It was based on the scientific evidence from the technical advisory cell, which publishes the documents that provide the evidence to Ministers. And, of course, as we now move forward following the firebreak, those businesses that have shown responsibility are now back operating again, and we hope that that short firebreak has given us headroom to get through to the end of the year.