Diolch for the introduction, and thank you to Helen Mary Jones who was the Chair in my absence, who did a lot of work during the pandemic to discuss the impact on the music industry. And sadly, the pandemic affected the launch of this report, which was supposed to happen during the first week of the initial lockdown, I believe. I'd like to thank all the bands and all the artists as well that contributed to this inquiry. We didn't have the usual suspects; we had bands like Valhalla Awaits, we had the Joy Formidable—my favourite band—in, we had DJs like Bethan Elfyn giving evidence, all inspiring us to understand how important live music is to our lives. But we can't ignore the fact that the pandemic has decimated the music industry here in Wales and, unlike other nations, like Scotland and England, where some things were able to open and some music venues were able to practice their craft, Wales did not do that. I have a quote here from the band Buffalo Summer, and, despite the fact that I'm an independent Chair, I will say that the quote is amazing: 'We were on tour when the first lockdown happened and now we're unable to make a living from music. With the shambles of Brexit, I don't know if we will ever tour Europe again. Westminster has let our country down. The only way out is independence.' So, this is how it's affected bands the length and breadth of Wales and I'm sure I will speak for a lot of other people in the industry—not only those in bands, but the behind-the-scene workers, sound engineers, theatre producers, all being affected by this.

In terms of the need for support beyond March 2021, the Welsh Government's culture recovery fund will take us up to March 2021 and many people have utilised that particular scheme, but the Deputy Minister has said in his budget paper that:

'Our intention is to provide additional funding for recovery for 2021-22, but the scale and the approach has not yet been determined at this early stage.'

Well, I would dispute that we are at an early stage, when the current funding comes to an end in March, and I would urge the Deputy Minister to come up with an idea as to whether any funding will continue for those in the sector, and is it reliant on Westminster money. We would like to hear that from you today.

In relation to support for the self-employed, well, our inquiries into the pandemic have shown time and time again that there have been gaps in employment support for those who work in the arts and the creative industries, with many getting left out of the situation altogether. UK Music has estimated that 72 per cent of the sector are self-employed and the Musicians' Union told us that a third of their members cannot access the self-employment income support scheme for a variety of reasons. Now we know that the Welsh Government, along with local councils, have launched the freelancer scheme, and I think that has been something that has been different to other UK nations, so I would say that has been something positive to welcome. But we also know that there have been problems with people being able to utilise that scheme, so I would hope that, if there are any such schemes in the future, we could iron out some of those initial problems.