4. What financial support has the Welsh Government provided for taxi drivers to help them through the pandemic? OQ56337

I thank Jenny Rathbone for that, Llywydd. During the pandemic, taxi drivers have been able to obtain financial support from the economic recovery fund, including four rounds of discretionary grants. A further £1.1 million has been allocated for free personal protective equipment and cleaning products for drivers to help them protect themselves and passengers from COVID-19.

Thank you, First Minister. I'd like to pay tribute to the Unite union for having highlighted the extent to which taxi drivers were suffering from being unable to qualify for the UK Government grants. And also to pay tribute to the Welsh Government for reaching out to taxi drivers and enabling them to get some targeted compensation for the disappearance of most of their customers as a result of the pandemic restrictions. I think it's an excellent example of how the Government has used its limited resources to fill gaps in support to small businesses and freelancers that's not available elsewhere. But I also want to pay tribute to the taxi drivers themselves, because as a result of these really quite small sums of money that you've made available to them, they decided to reciprocate by raising over £10,000 in Cardiff for three local foodbanks, and it was quite humbling to witness the handing over of a cheque at the Al-Ikhlas centre in Adamsdown, which has been providing weekly food parcels to people in desperate need for over a year. So, I think—

Can you come to your question, now, Jenny Rathbone?

Yes, thank you. So, looking to the future and our need to ensure that we have a clean, decarbonised public transport system, what financial support could be made available to taxi drivers to enable them to upgrade their vehicles to the clean air standards that we're going to be requiring in the future, so that they'll be able to continue serving the communities that they obviously have such regard for?

Well, Llywydd, I thank Jenny Rathbone. I want to join her in paying tribute to the work of taxi drivers here in Cardiff, who've worked so hard to be able to support those foodbanks. She and I—and I'm sure many other Members in the Senedd today—have significant numbers of taxi drivers who live in our constituencies, and the pandemic hit them really hard—really hard. I'm very glad that our discretionary funds particularly have had an impact on the sector. Cardiff Council, as of Friday last week, had approved over 2,700 discretionary grants to those with the stated occupation of 'taxi driver', worth over £5 million. And the latest round—the £30 million announced on the fifth of this month—will provide a further £2,000 grant for self-employed taxi drivers.

The modernisation of the fleet is a real challenge for them. It's why we have been very glad to develop a number of green taxi pilot schemes in the Cardiff capital region, in Pembrokeshire and in Denbighshire, to allow drivers to use zero-emission vehicles on a free try-before-you-buy basis. Fifty taxis are being purchased, with 30 days for a taxi drivers to use them free of charge, in the hope that that will stimulate demand within the sector for the sort of transport that Jenny Rathbone has very long championed. We're looking, as a Government, at options for grants, leasing arrangements and so on, so that we can stimulate the appetite for that sort of provision. We'll be there to support the sector in that, as well.