Part of 1. Questions to the First Minister – in the Senedd at 1:59 pm on 19 January 2021.
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.