Questions Without Notice from the Party Leaders

Part of 1. Questions to the First Minister – in the Senedd at 2:07 pm on 1 December 2020.

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Photo of Mark Drakeford Mark Drakeford Labour 2:07, 1 December 2020

Well, I doubt very much that reconsidering yesterday's decision would add to public trust, but what I can say to the Member is that of course he is right to point to the devastating impact of coronavirus in so many people's lives. The package of help that we have announced is not focused exclusively on hospitality itself; £180 million of it will be provided to those 8,000 hospitality businesses and the 2,000 businesses that support them in the supply chain, but the remainder of the £340 million package is available to help a wider range of businesses that are affected by the decision, and that includes retail businesses, where they can demonstrate that there has been a direct impact on their trading capacity, but it also includes sole traders as well. There is an important strand in the package that will allow cleaners, for example, who clean hospitality places—they're not employed by the business, they are employed by themselves—to be able to get help from this package, as will taxi drivers, Llywydd. I met with a group of taxi drivers on Sunday, myself. I was asked earlier which groups we had talked with over the weekend. I made a mosque visit myself on Sunday, expressly to meet with a group of people in the taxi trade, and they've had a desperately difficult time during this period, but there is help available to them, partly through the Welsh Government and partly through the UK Government. And this package goes on helping people, not just in hospitality but those whose livelihoods surround it.