Part of 1. Questions to the Minister for Economy, Transport and North Wales – in the Senedd at 1:52 pm on 27 January 2021.
I'd agree entirely with Russell George that there is a need for urgency in terms of how we support businesses, get money into business accounts and, I think, between Welsh Government, Business Wales and local authorities, the effort has been really quite remarkable in Wales, in terms of the speed at which we've been able to administer grants and awards. But Russell George is also right that we need to ensure that we have systems in place and teams in place that enable us to get money into business accounts by the end of the financial year. We would not wish to send back any financial resource if we can use that money instead to support businesses, and that's why we've always been keen, as we've designed these various schemes, to ensure that we can guarantee that we will be able to deposit money in bank accounts before the end of year, and that mentality will continue.
And in terms of asking the finance Minister for additional financial resource, well, I can tell Members that that £200 million additional fund that was announced by the First Minister last Friday came off the back of discussions between myself and the finance Minister, and the finance Minister kindly agreed to the more generous option of support that was put before her, recognising, as all colleagues do across Government, the urgent need and continued need to support people in employment and to make sure that we save as many businesses as we possibly can.