8. Will the Minister provide an update on how the Welsh Government is building resilience within public protection services in local government? OQ56235

Thank you, Lynne. As you know, public protection services have been a vital part of Wales’s response to the impacts of the pandemic and we're really, really grateful to public protection services in local authorities, in particular, for having stepped forward to help us out during this pandemic. Without them, we would certainly not have had the level of test, trace and protect, for example, that we've had in Wales, in stark contrast to across the boundary. Additional funding has been provided to local authorities through the local government hardship fund to strengthen that capacity.

Thank you, Minister, and I'd like to take this opportunity to place on record my heartfelt thanks to the public protection team at Torfaen County Borough Council, who've worked tirelessly in fast-changing circumstances to help keep people in Torfaen safe during the pandemic. The pandemic has definitely brought into sharper relief than ever before the vital role of health protection services in Wales, and I really welcome the recommendation of the chief medical officer that there should be a review of health protection services and enhanced funding for these services. What steps will the Minister therefore take, moving forward, in partnership with local government, to implement the chief medical officer's recommendation and to make sure that we have in place the robust and integrated system of health protection necessary to respond to future health threats? 

Thank you, Lynne. I also, as I said, echo your support and thanks to the public protection team in Torfaen and, indeed, across Wales, who have worked so hard to make sure that public health is protected in these very difficult times. Environmental health officers, trading standards, licensing teams are also leading on the response to the pandemic in local authorities. We're delighted to have provided £2.5 million through the hardship fund specifically to support local authorities in building up the capacity of those teams. These are teams that were thought previously as being back-office staff that might have been surplus to requirements, and it shows the folly of not understanding the integrated nature of local government. When you face a crisis such as this, these back-office staff suddenly seem to be the ones actually keeping us all alive, so it's a welcome lesson to have learnt.

As we said in setting out the draft budget, we recognise the ongoing impact of the pandemic, and given the uncertainty, we are considering COVID-specific funding as part of the final budget to make sure that those staff can be protected in their employment and the additional staff can also be provided going forward. We're very, of course, happy to work with the CMO and Public Health Wales in making sure that we understand the resilience aspects of that, the integration between public health in local authorities and with the health service and social care and so on. This is an integrated system, and that's never been more clear than in the last year. So, we're absolutely happy to work alongside the CMO in making sure that we have the most resilient service—attractive service as well, actually—for people to come into, going forward. 

Thank you for those responses, Minister.