Support For Businesses in Ynys Môn

Part of 1. Questions to the First Minister – in the Senedd at 2:24 pm on 15 December 2020.

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Photo of Mark Drakeford Mark Drakeford Labour 2:24, 15 December 2020

(Translated)

Well, Llywydd, may I thank Rhun ap Iorwerth for that series of supplementary questions? Just to say, in the first place, that support under the most recent scheme has already started to be issued by the local authorities directly to businesses. And as I said in response to other questions this afternoon: hundreds of businesses have received that support already, and millions of pounds have gone directly to them, and the hope is that the sum will increase over this week.

And, of course, we are aware of the challenging times that the hospitality and tourism sectors are facing, and we continue to speak to them; the Minister responsible for them speaks to them every week to try and plan ahead for the future and for the new year. And the hope is that, if we can—we are not in that position today, as we've already been discussing—but in the future, the hope is to reopen those sectors and to support them to work as they would wish to work—not be dependant on Government grants, but to generate income through their own businesses.

And on that final point, we have endeavoured already to be more flexible in the way in which we take information or the evidence of their balance sheets, so that we can help them. Ultimately, Llywydd, the funding is public money, and we as a Government have to be certain, when we do give these businesses financial support, that we must ensure that they are genuine businesses. That is why, sometimes, we ask for evidence from them to demonstrate that they are who they say they are, and that we can then give them the funding in the knowledge that we can explain in the future that we did so in a way that is cautious on one side, but flexible at the same time.