1. What representations has the First Minister made to the UK Government regarding the provision of additional financial support to assist jobs affected by COVID-19 in Wales? OQ56126

We take all opportunities to make such representations. The Minister for Economy, Transport and North Wales met the UK small business Minister on Thursday and the Secretary of State for Wales yesterday. A quadrilateral of UK Governments takes place tomorrow, where further representations will be made. 

First Minister, I'm glad to hear about the frequency of those meetings, because when I first laid this question, I thought to ask you to push the UK Government to provide more support for the self-employed and others who still fall outside the job support schemes available, and to push them to guarantee to protect, which they shamefully failed to do in a vote in the House of Commons this week, the £20 uplift to universal credit, which, as we know, goes to some of the poorest working families in Wales. But I did not foresee, First Minister, that, in the course of last weekend, the Conservatives would bring forward proposals for a bonfire of workers' rights and terms and conditions, so that, in the teeth of a jobs insecurity crisis, which is flowing from both leaving the EU and the global pandemic, the UK Government rips away hard-won protections for ordinary working people. So, First Minister, when you next meet Boris Johnson, would you ask him why working people in Ogmore and Wales should ever vote for his party, when he plans to make them work longer for less pay and strip away their employment rights? 

I thank Huw Irranca-Davies for that supplementary question. When I next get an opportunity to meet with the Prime Minister, I will certainly put those points to him. People in Wales have a right to know why promises that were made are so rapidly torn up by this Government. We were provided with a promise that workers' rights would be protected as we left the European Union. We see how shallow that promise was. We were promised that Wales would not be a penny worse off through leaving the European Union. That promise has been shredded time and time again just in recent weeks. We're promised that we will get protections that other parts of the United Kingdom get, yet when, at the weekend, the UK Government made a very great deal of fuss about the support it was going to give to airports, having decided that travel corridors could no longer be sustained, it turned out that while Bristol will get £8 million, Cardiff Airport is to get nothing from them. Time and time again, this Government fulfills that well-known saying, known everywhere in Wales, 'You can't trust the Tories'.

First Minister, I've had a number of concerns raised with me from those businesses in the hospitality and tourism sector. The issue seems to be that the criteria for the economic resilience fund are that they have to employ staff on the pay-as-you-earn system. Many in that industry, of course, would point out that that's the very nature of the industry, where they do employ people on a self-employed basis, whether they're cleaners or on a short-term basis. Can you agree, First Minister, to have a look at this particular issue in terms of the next round of the economic resilience fund? Because the hospitality and tourism sector needs urgent support, and these criteria, which could be helping them through the economic resilience fund, are preventing them from actually being able to access the support.

The tourist and hospitality industry in Wales has the most generous package of support anywhere in the United Kingdom, and millions and millions of pounds have been paid out to those industries and those businesses in order to assist them through the enormous difficulties that the pandemic has created for them. I'm happy, of course, to look at the specific point that the Member has raised. We hope, here in Wales, to be able to announce further support to industries affected by the current state of the pandemic. We'll be assisted in that when it is clear from the UK Government how much money we have in order to be able to make those further announcements. The Member will know that the Treasury announced that we were getting £227 million coming to Wales as a result of further support in England, only the following day to withdraw that announcement and to tell us that we had the money already. When we do have genuine clarity, then we will be in a position to make those further announcements to which we are committed. I'm happy to say that we'll take up the point that the Member has raised in those discussions.

First Minister, do you agree with me that the best way to secure jobs during this pandemic is to ensure that all employers affected by measures to curb the spread of COVID-19 receive support? I have been contacted by two such affected companies in my region, both of which operate amusement arcades and both of which have been refused support because they're classed as gambling businesses. First Minister, these are legal businesses, their taxes are taken and they are suffering the same as any other leisure business, so shouldn't they receive the same support as other leisure businesses? Thank you.

More than £1.7 billion is already in the accounts of businesses here in Wales as a result of the assistance that they have received from the Welsh Government. There is more still to be claimed and there are more announcements, as I said, to come, with further support. In the end, as Members will understand, this is public money. There have to be rules about how claims can be made and who can claim them. It's for business who think they have a legitimate claim and can bring themselves within those rules to do so. And provided they can, then those payments will be made. But when you are dispersing public money on the scale that has been necessary during this public health crisis, it has to be done on the basis that that money can be properly accounted for, and when payments are made, there is confidence that they are being made to legitimate businesses for legitimate purposes, and those are the rules that we have here in Wales.

Question 2, Neil Hamilton. Question 2, Neil Hamilton.

Question 2 [OQ56158] not asked.