Part of 1. Questions to the Minister for Economy, Transport and North Wales – in the Senedd at 1:35 pm on 3 March 2021.
Diolch, Llywydd. I'd like to begin my set of questions, since this is the final set of questions that I will be asking the Minister, by once again thanking him for the constructive way in which he's engaged with me and with other opposition parties through the time of the crisis. It's certainly been greatly appreciated by me, and I feel that it has helped us to engage constructively and to help support business as best we can at this very difficult time.
If I can begin with some points with regard to current business support, the Minister mentioned in his response to Paul Davies the local government discretionary fund. He'll be aware that it has been put to me by some colleagues in local government that there are some concerns from their finance department about fully exercising discretion in case this raises issues further down the line through the audit process. I wonder if the Minister can update us on any further conversations that he's had with local government to assure them that they will not be negatively impacted by the audit process if they do fully exercise discretion to reach as many businesses as possible.
If I can now turn to the new fund for hospitality businesses that will be opening next week, I obviously welcome the targeted support for those businesses most badly affected, but I am concerned that it appears that this fund is only available to those businesses employing 10 employees or more. I wonder if the Minister can tell us today whether that is 10 full-time equivalents or 10 individuals, because he'll be very aware that many people who work in hospitality work in part-time roles. And can he explain what the plans are for smaller businesses, because many hospitality businesses do not employ, certainly, 10 full-time equivalents?
And, finally, is there any risk that some of the money currently available for business support will be lost if it's not spent by the end of the financial year, and is the Minister confident that his department has the capacity to get those funds out to ensure that businesses are helped in a timely way, but also to ensure that no funding intended for Welsh businesses is lost?