The next item is the business statement and announcement. I call on the Trefnydd to make the statement—Rebecca Evans.

Diolch, Llywydd. I have three changes to this week's business. The Minister for Health and Social Services will make a statement today on the update on special measures arrangements at Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board. Consequently, the statement on the Valleys taskforce has been postponed until 8 December. Finally, the debate on the Legislation (Wales) Act 2019 (Amendment of Schedule 1) Regulations 2020 has been moved to the last item on today's agenda. Draft business for the next three weeks is set out on the business statement and announcement, which can be found amongst the meeting papers available to Members electronically.

Trefnydd, can I call for a statement from an appropriate Government Minister regarding restrictions on singing in Welsh churches and other places of worship? Obviously, we've got the Christmas season that is about to be upon us. Many people enjoy going to carol services and participating in worship services at this particular time of the year, and the UK Government has recently made an announcement on principles for safer singing, including in places of worship, which will enable people to get together, provided they are cognisant of social distancing and take other precautions, in order to gather for such worship. I would really like the opportunity for people in Wales to enjoy the same privileges, and I wonder whether we could have a statement on this as soon as possible. Thank you.

Thank you to Darren Millar for raising this issue this afternoon, and of course we keep all aspects of our regulations and our guidance under constant review. I do understand the challenges that the restrictions on singing in places of worship does place on churches and other places of faith within our communities, and I understand the disappointment that many people feel in not being able to sing at the moment. I will ask the Minister for Mental Health, Well-being and Welsh Language—as is her new title—to consider the points that you've made, and obviously, as we continue to keep these things under review, your points will be taken into due account.

I'd like to highlight the frustrations of Rhondda businesses that have been left without any financial help since the beginning of the pandemic. We know businesses across Wales that have lost out after applying for the economic resilience fund. A new business in the Rhondda tell me that they've not received any support, despite losing a majority of their takings. They applied for a lockdown discretionary grant administered through the local authority and received a response saying that their application to another fund, which they hadn't applied to, had been unsuccessful. Taxi drivers are another group that haven't been catered for, and there was a Unite trade union organised demonstration today in Cardiff city centre, calling for support, and I back this campaign. Now, I acknowledge that we live in unprecedented times and that schemes have been drawn up quickly, but unless lessons are learned from what has gone wrong so far, then mistakes will be repeated and targeted support will continue not to reach the businesses that need it. So, can we have a Government statement outlining how you can review the grant system so that those cases that I've raised today can be helped and that we can ensure that businesses and people don't miss out on a financial lifeline when they really, really need it now?

I'm grateful, again, to Leanne Wood for raising this issue this afternoon, and I know that she'll be taking up that first specific case with the council in RCT in order to establish what has happened with that particular grant application. It is the case, of course, that Wales does continue to have the most generous package of support for businesses anywhere in the UK, and the third phase of the ERF has already seen over 35,000 businesses offered over £106 million to date, and, in addition, more than £20 million has reached tourism, hospitality and retail businesses with a retail value of between £12,000 and £50,000, in the form of that emergency funding. So, that funding is absolutely getting to businesses, although inevitably we're not going to be able to support every single business in Wales. But we are absolutely keen to learn from the experiences of the third phase of the economic resilience fund as we develop our future support for business.

And I absolutely share the concerns about taxi drivers in particular. I think that there is a social justice element here. I had a good discussion with Professor Ogbonna, who has been doing some work for Welsh Government on how the black, Asian and minority ethnic community in particular has been badly affected by the coronavirus. And taxi drivers are eligible to apply for that discretionary element of the ERF, and I'm really keen that we get that message out to taxi drivers. But I know that Ken Skates has also been having some discussion on specific issues affecting taxi drivers and others, with Unite and others who are affected.

If I could, I would like to ask the Government for a statement on the availability of crisis services, including financial assistance programmes, throughout Christmas and the new year period.

Presiding Officer, we're all, on all sides of the Chamber, aware of how people have suffered over this year, and we also know that there are many families facing a real crisis at this time of year. We have a debate about Christmas and the need for people to come together and enjoy the festive period, but sometimes, I think, we forget that, for many families, they will fear Christmas and they will not be looking forward to the holiday period because of the financial pressures that they're facing as a family. And we know that there are groups of people, or volunteers and communities coming together to support and sustain families in this period, as there have been throughout the last year in my own constituency. But it is important that the Welsh Government, I feel, make a real statement on how they will be seeking to support crisis services through this period.

I would also like to ask for a debate on the shared prosperity fund. We understand from the Sunday papers that the UK Government will be making a statement on this tomorrow. There has been, to my knowledge, no consultation on this, and it appears—again through reading reports in newspapers—that the UK Government intends to not learn the lessons of European funding, but to repeat some of the mistakes that were made. As European funding programmes Minister, I led a review of how we did allocate funding and funding streams nearly a decade ago, and we learnt a lot of lessons at that time, all of which are being undone now by a Government that is intent on playing politics with our country's future. I hope that we will be able to have an urgent debate on this matter before the Christmas recess to ensure that this place is able to discuss these matters and to put its own views on the table.

Thank you to Alun Davies for giving me the opportunity to put on record the Welsh Government's thanks for those individuals and volunteers who have worked so hard throughout the coronavirus pandemic to offer that kind of crisis support to families and individuals who really are on the sharp end of things as a result of the crisis and as a result of 10 years of austerity.

Welsh Government has put significant funding into the single advice fund, and that fund has had a specific and impressive record, I think, in terms of ensuring that families and individuals are claiming the benefits to which they're entitled—millions of pounds back into the pockets of people who quite rightly deserve that in Wales. So, I think that's been very successful. And, as part of the response to the pandemic, we've also increased our support for the discretionary assistance fund by over £10 million, and again, that's a really important opportunity for people who are really struggling and find themselves in a desperate situation, to access some very quick funding. So, we're very pleased with the way in which that fund is being operated, and of course, I would encourage Members to signpost any constituents who need that support to that fund.

I share Alun Davies's real concerns about the shared prosperity fund. Engagement from the UK Government has been absolutely woeful—non-existent, in fact—on this particular issue. To what extent we will know anything of use tomorrow in the spending review is as yet unknown, but it is my intention, early after the spending review announcement, to be able to provide an early statement—in the first instance, a written statement—to colleagues with our initial reactions, and then, obviously, we'll find the right opportunity to provide more information on any news that may or may not be forthcoming on the shared prosperity fund.

I call for an urgent statement on support for small bed-and-breakfast businesses. When I asked you for a statement on this six weeks ago, I said the Welsh Government again excluded them from financial support to help them survive the pandemic, this time barred from a third round of the economic resilience fund. They were also deemed ineligible in previous rounds and have been denied small business grants, unlike their counterparts in England and Scotland. In reply, you said they should speak to Business Wales advisers to explore whether they can point them in the direction of other forms of support. Having tried this, they told me that only loans were available, and these would push them into unmanageable debt.

They've since told me that they are also ineligible for your lockdown discretionary grant and ask if the Welsh Government were going to help them before we go into this winter, stating, 'Our sector cannot possibly survive without additional help'. They therefore need a statement from you, detailing the support you will now give them, or explaining why on earth you've abandoned this key sector and its support for our local economies.

Well, I'd be really grateful if Mark Isherwood could send me some more details of the reasons as to why the B&B owners to whom he refers were not eligible for the discretionary fund. He says that he has, but it hasn't arrived with me yet. So, I'd be keen to understand the reasons behind that, because we are, as I've mentioned in response to Leanne Wood, we are looking to explore what we can learn from this current ERF phase 3 in terms of our package of support as we move forward for business. So, I'd be keen to understand why they were unable to access funding through the discretionary fund, which is deliberately very wide and broad in order to meet the needs of those businesses that have not yet been able to access support.

I would like to know with whom exactly within Welsh Government the theatre sector should be having discussions about reopening in a safe manner. With bingo halls, cinemas and casinos and so on being able to reopen, those working in theatres, and some of us who enjoy attending theatres, do need to know when they will be able to reopen safely. The problem is that they don't know with whom within Welsh Government they should be discussing the issue. It seems that they are in discussions held by the major events unit, but that isn't the appropriate place for this discussion because you could be talking about very small-scale events within theatres. So, can you give us some clarity: with whom exactly should they be having these discussions?

Well, in the light of the wider public health context, theatres and concert halls, as Siân Gwenllian says, are required to remain closed to the general public. And, of course, they are however integral to our approach to testing events, which, unfortunately, won't now be able to resume until February at the earliest. So, it will be, at the earliest, February in terms of when we look at those tests. We have started to reopen in a limited way. So, we've been exploring opening up to rehearsals and to online performances, for example, and our £63 million cultural recovery fund is there to support theatres and concert halls in the meantime.

In terms of who they should explore further conversations with, it would be Eluned Morgan or Dafydd Elis-Thomas who would be the appropriate person to have those discussions.

I have two brief requests, Trefnydd: first, could we have time in the Chamber to discuss the annual report of the national advisers on domestic violence and abuse, please? Tomorrow is the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women and Children, and last year, there were the deaths of 1,300 women, and five of those in Wales. Normally, I would be requesting Members to support the White Ribbon fund. So, can I take this opportunity to ask colleagues to consider support to their local projects in their constituencies? Because they are potential life savers, especially now when, for many women, staying at home does not mean staying safe.

And secondly, I would be pleased to have an update from the Minister for Economy, Transport and North Wales on the Global Centre of Rail Excellence in Wales. The GCRE is a fantastic opportunity for Powys and the upper Swansea valley that's been brought forward by the Welsh Government. It would be really good to have some clarity on where things stand, particularly because the Conservative Member of Parliament for Brecon and Radnorshire has muddied the waters by incorrectly claiming that it is the Welsh Government that needs to give it the green light, whereas my understanding is that the hold-up is because the UK Government has not made a decision between the Powys site and the rival Siemens site in Scunthorpe. 

Llywydd, can I take this opportunity to thank Joyce Watson for the incredible work that she does, year after year, in terms of the White Ribbon campaign and in terms of being a voice for women and girls who are experiencing or are in danger of experiencing violence? I think that she's an inspiration to all of us, and I'm really grateful to Joyce for the vigil that she organised yesterday. It was an online vigil, but no less powerful for it, and also the event that I attended in the morning, which was specifically focused on women and girls facing domestic violence in rural communities, whose voices aren't always heard and who often find it more difficult to reach out for the help that they need. So, I thought that was an incredibly powerful event.

The Deputy Minister and Chief Whip will be issuing a statement tomorrow that announces the publication of the national advisers' plan, and their priorities over the next year include embedding a public health approach to violence against women, domestic abuse and sexual violence and also working with the honour-based abuse leadership group as two of the things that they'll be focusing on over the next 12 months.

In terms of the Global Centre of Rail Excellence, it was, of course, the Welsh Government that developed the innovative proposals for the Global Centre of Rail Excellence after identifying the need for such a facility, and we've shown the leadership that was required to bring it to this point. It's very much a made-in-Wales initiative, creating the new facility for the entire UK rail industry, and we intend it to be an attraction for jobs, skills and growth in the area. It is the case that in early July we submitted a business case to the UK Government outlining the next steps to make that centre a reality, and we do await formal endorsement by the UK Government of the business case, and, clearly, we hope for a positive announcement on that in the comprehensive spending review tomorrow.

Business Minister, could I please ask for a statement from the education Minister clarifying the Welsh Government's position on keeping children in schools as much as possible right up until the end of this term? It was encouraging to hear the First Minister share my concerns over year groups in some schools in some authorities being arguably off unnecessarily because of not using the track and trace system properly. I'm just wondering how—within that statement, if it could be incorporated—this Government intends to work with our schools and local authorities to ensure that there is consistency across Wales in our schools' approach to the coronavirus.

Also, the First Minister mentioned lateral flow tests, if that could be also incorporated within the statement, timescales, amounts, that sort of thing. And lastly, Llywydd, also, I've been hearing that some schools in south-east Wales may now be closing a week early this Christmas term, so I'm just wondering if the Government can provide some clarity on that, because, from the understanding I have, schools were wanting to close a week early because that would mean a two-week isolation period for Christmas Eve, obviously. So, I was just wondering if it could provide some clarity on that and what the actual Government position is, considering that it is the Government's priority to keep our children in school as much as possible. Thank you.

Thank you to Laura Anne Jones for raising that important issue. The Minister for Education does have questions in the Chamber tomorrow, so that might be an opportunity to explore some of this in more detail, but, alongside that, I will ask her to write to you with some further information about the plan for testing children in school, and also the advice that is being provided to schools specifically in terms of sending children home for self-isolation and so forth, and also the kind of thinking that's going on in terms of the approach to Christmas and ensuring that we keep children and their families as safe as we possibly can.

Minister, I'm asking for a debate to be held urgently on the end of the Brexit transition period and what it means specifically for Welsh ports. We're now at the eleventh hour, and warnings raised by myself and others around the lack of preparation in Holyhead are sounding with ever louder urgency. Now, with the need for customs declarations and checks on outbound freight from 1 January, there still hasn't been, I understand, a trial run of the new electronic customs system that's to be used. The Minister will have read about concerns expressed today by Irish hauliers about mayhem at the port. I've spoken to Nick Bosanquet, professor of health policy at Imperial College, who's worried that ports delays could even increase the COVID risk.

Now, yesterday the Irish Taoiseach visited the pretty impressive infrastructure that's been developed at Dublin port. There's nothing in Holyhead for when those checks are needed in July next year on inbound freight. A site in Warrington has been identified for Holyhead's imported goods checkpoint, at least temporarily. You couldn't make it up. That site clearly has to be in or near Holyhead. Now, UK Government has messed up royally here, but we also need to hear exactly what else Welsh Government has tried, and is trying to do, to salvage things, given that Welsh Government is responsible for developing a border point in the south-west of Wales, and UK Government for the one relating to Holyhead. Now, my fear, as I've warned time and time again, is that anything that affects the free flow of trade through Holyhead will undermine the ports and undermine jobs related to the ports, so can we please bring all these issues before the Senedd again, at this late hour even, so we can hammer home just what's at stake?

Thank you to Rhun ap Iorwerth for raising what are serious and significant concerns. I will make a point of speaking to the Minister for Economy and Transport about your request for that urgent statement. If that's not able to be accommodated in the very near future, I will certainly ask him to write to you on those issues in the meantime.

I wish to request a statement from the Welsh Government on the planning process, timescales and approach towards a limited and phased restart strategy for performance and arts venues across Wales, but to note that scientific research and critical safe operating mitigating frameworks are now in place across the UK and internationally, that we in Wales have opened and are operating cinemas and bingo halls, that safe rehearsal of orchestra and opera is operating across Wales, and that English venues' restart has been now announced and that some smaller venues, theatres and arts centres are now ready to volunteer as pilots to be able to open safely now with similar appropriate strict mitigations in place. So, Minister, these smaller venues are not only critical to well-being for our communities in terms of engagement and participation, but, if they don't open soon, they may have to close, and many cannot claim now from the COVID-19 economic resilience fund. So, can this Welsh Government statement set out a clear pathway forward for the sector and outline the measures to support our arts and performance venues so they can open in a planned, limited and safe manner, as clearly advised by the live music report to the Culture, Welsh Language and Communications Committee for Welsh Government response? Thank you.

Again, thank you to Rhianon Passmore for raising this issue this afternoon. I know that she's had the opportunity to make those strong representations on behalf of smaller venues in particular directly to the Minister for Welsh Language, Well-being and Mental Health earlier on today. It is the case, certainly in terms of the test events—and I appreciate that these are probably larger events than those that Rhianon Passmore is thinking about—that they wouldn't be resuming until February at the earliest, but I do appreciate that we're probably talking in this case about smaller venues. I'll be sure again to make sure that the Minister does consider that and updates you appropriately.

I thank the Trefnydd. There will now be a break to allow changeovers in the Siambr. So, a short break.

Plenary was suspended at 15:19.

The Senedd reconvened at 15:26, with the Deputy Presiding Officer (Ann Jones) in the Chair.