Community Cohesion

Part of Questions to the Deputy Minister and Chief Whip – in the Senedd at 2:39 pm on 15 December 2020.

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Photo of Jane Hutt Jane Hutt Labour 2:39, 15 December 2020

Combating digital exclusion is crucial in terms of enhancing and supporting community cohesion, but particularly reaching out to the most vulnerable people in our communities, as you say, Janet Finch-Saunders, affected by coronavirus. And I think what we have been able to do over the last nine months—and certainly through my budget, through the third sector and equality budget—is repurpose some of our funding to ensure that we can provide not just equipment, but training and support to many of those who have been excluded and disadvantaged because they haven't had that access. And indeed, this is very much a cross-Government initiative, led by the Deputy Minister for economy and transport, in terms of not only addressing digital exclusion, but actually focusing on how we can include those communities as we move to more remote working, but also not exclusively addressing those issues where people have not got access in a digital way.