Part of 1. Questions to the Minister for Economy, Transport and North Wales – in the Senedd at 1:54 pm on 27 January 2021.
Diolch yn fawr, Llywydd. Further to the Minister's responses to Russell George, does he share the concerns that did seem to be being expressed to the committee last week about actually getting the money out of the door quickly enough? In saying this, Llywydd, I completely acknowledge that this is a huge task, and that many of the people who've been involved, at all levels, in delivering support for businesses in Wales have made absolutely heroic efforts. But I, like others who've spoken already today, have got some concerns about actually getting that resource to the right place fast enough.
I have, for example, heard that, in one part of Wales, a survey of hospitality businesses showed that 75 per cent of them had been refused for one or another of the Welsh Government's schemes. They were unable to be clear to me about which schemes they'd been turned down for. And I put this to the Minister as well, that there is quite a bit of complexity out there between support that is available from UK Government and support that's available from the Welsh Government, and I ask the Minister what further he can do to ensure that businesses understand what they should apply for and how they can access that. Does the Minister consider that there may be a case, if there are issues in getting money out of the door centrally, let's say through Business Wales, to divert some of the new resource to provide additional discretionary support, administered by local authorities, who may find it easier to determine if some of those businesses that perhaps don't meet the formal criteria, but they will have a better idea of whether those are genuine businesses or not?