Questions now from party spokespeople. The Conservative spokesperson first this week, Russell George.

Diolch, Presiding Officer, and good afternoon, Minister. Two weeks ago, Minister, you launched the £180 million sector-specific fund to support  the hospitality, tourism and leisure sectors. How many businesses have already been supported and how much has been allocated, and how much money is still left in that pot to be allocated to those businesses?

Well, can I thank Russell George for his question? The sector-specific fund at the outset came under intense demand from businesses, obviously, because there is a desperate need for support for those enterprises that are suffering so dearly right now. I can tell Russell George and Members that, as of today, more than 7,600 applications have been submitted, worth in the region of £70 million already. The fund, obviously, remains open as planned and we continue to provide status updates on the Business Wales website as and when required. So far, more than 880 offers, worth in excess of £5.5 million, have been made, with £3 million of that accepted by businesses and more than £2 million has already been made in terms of payment.

Thank you for your answer, Minister. I would suggest that those figures aren't particularly good. If only 7,600 businesses have actually brought forward applications, then the money hasn't even got to them yet; they're just applications that have been received. That tells us that there are thousands and thousands of businesses across Wales that haven't been supported in this particular sector. And from my perspective, it's so important that this financial support gets to businesses as quickly as possible. I know that you will agree with me that any business that was viable last year should be viable later this year when we see, hopefully, the end of this horrible pandemic.

But I'm particularly concerned about the hospitality sector, because it's this area that has been under the greatest level of restriction for the longest period of time. They've been under restrictions before the late December lockdown. Now, I know in response to question 1 today, Minister, you mentioned that the latest package of support for a typical hospitality business in Wales with the equivalent of six full-time staff would be eligible for between £12,000 and £14,000 in total. My concern is that I've had dozens of businesses contact me—small businesses in the hospitality sector, and other Members have had the same, because we've heard from some today also—who have fallen through the net of financial support, mainly because they don't meet the criteria for the economic resilience fund because it's too restrictive for a range of reasons: either the businesses have to employ staff on pay as you earn or because the fund is aimed at larger value-added-tax registered businesses, and so on. Can you either introduce a discretionary fund for those small businesses in the hospitality sector or can you look at the eligibility criteria for support and make that less restrictive?

I thank Russell George for his further questions and say that, in terms of the overall numbers, there are between 8,500 and 9,000 businesses within the sector that the specific fund has been established to support. So, of those 8,500 to 9,000 businesses, I think 7,600 applications is pretty impressive so far, but obviously we are leaving the fund open to give every opportunity to those remaining businesses to apply for support, and indeed we made the decision to extend the period the fund is going to be open for. Obviously, this is vitally important money for businesses that will continue to suffer during the winter months. But, as I've already said, we're already putting money into the bank accounts of those businesses—a significant sum of money has already been awarded and drawn down.

In terms of a discretionary fund, obviously we wouldn't want to duplicate what is already on offer and local authorities still have their discretionary funds open for applications—a £25 million fund. We're open to ideas as to how we can support every sector across the economy, and crucially the hospitality sector. If we look at some of the comparisons as well with the UK, with the larger businesses, we'd see that for businesses with a rateable value of between £12,000 and £50,000, in England, the maximum award is currently around about £6,000; in Northern Ireland, about £14,400; in Scotland, for hospitality, it's around £12,000; here in Wales, £25,000. And if you look at the larger businesses, those with rateable values of between £50,00 and £500,000, in England the maximum would be £9,000; Northern Ireland, £19,200; in Scotland, again, specifically for hospitality businesses, it would be £34,000. There is an opportunity here in Wales for those businesses of that size and type to draw down £110,000. That demonstrates just how significant our funds are in Wales and how we are still offering the most generous package of support for businesses. But, of course, as we consider future rounds of support, we are always open to ideas, and any suggestions from any Members will be welcome and received very well here in this department.

Well, can I thank the Minister for his offer, and I'm certainly happy to take him up on that? I think the headlines from me, in terms of ideas, would be to make the criteria less restrictive on the economic resilience fund, to allow more businesses to apply. I appreciate that hospitality businesses on the high street might have got the non-domestic rate relief, but they weren't able to have any additional funding because of the restrictions in place for many of those types of businesses.

I was interested in the evidence that you and your officials gave last week, of course, to the Economy, Infrastructure and Skills Committee. Your officials seemed to acknowledge that there is a large sum of money that the Welsh Government has not yet allocated. You also suggested that your department is perhaps reluctant to draw down or ask for further money from the finance Minister because you're fearful that you won't be able to design and deploy suitable funding schemes quickly enough in order for that money to be spent before the end of the financial year, which, again, would make me push for that to be less restrictive on the criteria, in terms of the economic resilience fund. From my perspective, businesses in non-essential retail, hospitality, tourism and leisure—a whole range of businesses—are crying out for additional support, and that money needs to be spent quickly, and every single bit of money that is available, that the Welsh Government has, has to be spent rather than lost, to ensure that struggling businesses survive through this pandemic.

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.

Plaid Cymru spokesperson now, Helen Mary Jones.

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?

Well, can I thank Helen Mary Jones for the points that she raises and the very valid questions? And I should begin by saying that, normally, this department would administer something in the region of £20 million to £30 million of business support grants through the business and regions budget line in an average year. And, of course, there would be other grants that would be awarded for entrepreneurial start-ups and so forth, but that pales into insignificance compared to the amount of grant awards that we've made this year: £1.7 billion of money is already in the accounts of businesses from the £2 billion available to us. One hundred and seventy-eight thousand grants have been made to businesses, worth £1 billion, through local authorities. That is a remarkable effort. Five hundred and twenty million pounds has been made available to businesses through the Welsh Government's economic resilience fund, supporting thousands and thousands of businesses and 140,000-plus people in employment. So, in terms of being able to get money into bank accounts swiftly, I think we have an incredibly strong story to tell. But we wish to make sure that we continue with that swift pace of administration in the weeks and months to come.

What we are keen to do, as well, is to ensure that businesses don't submit duplicate applications for grants, and, unfortunately, it's become quite apparent of late that a significant number of businesses have indeed submitted duplicate applications, and that can sometimes then hold up an award because we have to cross-reference applications against others, so that we don't make multiple awards to the same business. And so, what I would urge businesses to do, to ensure that they support us in helping them, is to sign up to Business Wales so that they get regular updates, regular digital news letters, and to ensure that when they are considering making an application, whether it be for UK or Welsh Government support, that they do look at the eligibility criteria very carefully, so that they are not then disappointed as a result of either missing details of the eligibility criteria or, indeed, ignoring them completely. It's absolutely essential that businesses help us to help them by applying only once for grants and by applying for the ones that are relevant to them.

I'm grateful to the Minister for his answer. There is still quite a complex picture out there, and I'll return to this through correspondence with the Minister about the issue of whether we can use local authorities more, particularly for getting support to some of the very smallest businesses that are still really important in terms of the people that they employ.

Can I ask the Minister now about longer term support? Obviously, we hope we're going to have an election in May, but we also know that some of the major UK schemes—and I'm thinking in particular of the job retention scheme, the furlough scheme—at the moment are scheduled to come to an end at the end of March. I wonder if the Minister has any sense, given that, unfortunately, the position with regard to the virus is still very serious—we can see some improvements, but it's still very serious—does the Minister have any indication from the UK Government as to whether or not these UK Government schemes are likely to be further extended, if we do find ourselves in a situation where businesses like hospitality can't reopen? And what consideration are the Minister and his team giving to what the Welsh Government will be able to do if that UK support does not continue or does not continue in its present form? I appreciate, of course, that the Welsh Government isn't resourced to do something like the furlough scheme, but I put it to the Minister that you may be wanting to consider what sectors are going to be most likely to continue to be impacted and whether or not you will be able to provide some support, going on further into the summer, particularly for hospitality and tourism businesses if they can't open.

Well, can I thank Helen Mary Jones for her further contribution? And she's absolutely right, we would not be in a position—we would simply not be able to afford to replace schemes such as the job retention scheme and the self-employment support scheme in Wales. That requires the might of the UK Treasury. But, throughout this pandemic, what we have done is respond swiftly and appropriately when the UK Government has made announcements regarding support that they are able to offer, and we have shaped our packages to ensure that we plug the gaps and that we add value.

We are awaiting a response from the UK Government with regard to the very many asks that we recently made—and have been calling for for some time—in a formal letter to the Chancellor. I and my friend and colleague Rebecca Evans wrote to the Chancellor asking for the job retention scheme to be preserved for longer. We also asked for other guarantees, including flexibility from HMRC for deferred payments to be allowed for schemes such as the coronavirus business interruption loan scheme. We're awaiting the response from the Chancellor. We haven't had any indication as to whether our ask will be met with a degree of sympathy.

I've also been calling for clarity as to whether the UK Government is going to bring forward a directors income support scheme, which I know that ExcludedUK have been campaigning for and that many people have been requesting. So, we are awaiting details from the UK Government as we approach the budget, and I would hope that the UK Government would, again, recognise the need to extend that crucially important job retention scheme and other schemes, and to be acting with fairness and flexibility with regard to the other areas of activity that I've outlined.

I'm grateful to the Minister for his answer, and I'm particularly pleased to see that he's continuing to take up the case of those excluded from support, as represented by ExcludedUK. I know the Minister is very well aware of the extent to which this COVID crisis has highlighted and thrown into sharp relief some of the underlying structural injustices and inequalities, whether that's between communities geographically in Wales—we saw Dwyfor Meirionnydd being the county where the most people signed on to receive universal credit, because they weren't able to access their employment in tourism—and we've seen the black and minority ethnic communities particularly badly affected.

I met—virtually, of course—last weekend with some young people from Kidwelly and the wider Llanelli area, and they were telling me that they're really keen to be able to build successful careers here in Wales, but also their focus was wanting to stay in their own community if they can—much more, perhaps, than might have been the case in the past. They wanted to be sure that there would be opportunities for them to do that. They were also very concerned about others, and particularly spoke to me about black people and people of colour in the context of Black Lives Matter. What can the Minister do today to set out for those young people, and young people like them, how he will plan to ensure that those opportunities are available in communities where the economies traditionally have not been strong—and west Wales and parts of the Valleys, of course, are typical of that—and how he will ensure that some of those structural inequalities that have excluded people from opportunities will be addressed in his plans to rebuild the economy after the crisis comes to an end?

Helen Mary Jones raises yet another important point, and that is that no young person should have to move out of their community in order to move up in the world. They simply should not have to move away from home if they do not wish to do so. In support of young people, who we know from previous recessions will find it more difficult to enter the jobs market, we have established the barriers fund, we've established the COVID commitment and we've enhanced the Communities for Work Plus budget.

In particular, the COVID commitment provides for thousands of apprenticeship opportunities that would otherwise be lost, an extension to the pilot schemes of the personal learning accounts—we're making it a national scheme—and, of course, it provides, crucially at this time, I think, further support for mental health and resilience, which is most definitely needed for all people, but particularly for young people. The barriers fund is focused on young people in particular, but also people from black, Asian and minority ethnic communities. That allows individuals to draw down grants of up to £2,000 to set up their own businesses. That fund will also be aligned with support and advice from Business Wales to give those start-ups the best prospects for the future.

There are other schemes in place that are designed to support those who are furthest from the jobs market and those who are most likely to be adversely impacted by coronavirus, including the incentive scheme that we established for apprenticeships, where a business is able to draw down up to £3,000 if they take on a young person as an apprentice. All of these schemes are designed to ensure that as many young people as possible do not experience the long-term, deep, scarring effects of an economic downturn that we know, in previous generations, too many people have had to endure.