5. What plans does the Welsh Government have to support businesses as lockdown restrictions are eased? OQ56508

I thank Angela Burns for that question, Llywydd. The decision to provide full, year-long rate relief for more than 70,000 Welsh businesses is just one example of the support that the Welsh Government will provide over the next 12 months as we plan to move beyond the pandemic.

Thank you for that, First Minister. As you are very aware, the tourism and hospitality sectors are incredibly important in my constituency of Carmarthen West and South Pembrokeshire, and last week I held a virtual roundtable with representatives of the sector, from the most upmarket of hotels to pubs and clubs trying to survive this pandemic. I heard the gratitude that they offered for the UK Government's furlough scheme and the Welsh Government's many different schemes of financial support, and they are very grateful to both Governments for that. However, the other message I heard was a need for clarity on when and how businesses are to be brought out of hibernation, and they raised the challenge of staff. It's the recruitment and training of skilled staff such as chefs, such as the person who runs the front end of the restaurant, such as the sommeliers and all these other people. You can't just get them off the street; they need to be brought on and trained. The point they were making is that if they are given very little warning of when lockdowns will stop, then they don't know how long they have to go out there and get them. They also raised the concerns that actually the resource isn't there, because people have moved on; people are looking at other, alternative forms of employment where they might be able to have a more secure tenure going forward. So, can I ask you, First Minister, as my last request of you as a Member of this Senedd, to really bear in mind these more fragile sectors where a lot of casual work is required, a lot of casual labour, but where you still need good standards and the time to train the people who can support those businesses, and to give them all of the warning you possibly can as to when they might be able to open up and carry on?

Llywydd, can I thank Angela Burns for that very constructive question, and indeed for the tone with which she always raises questions here on the floor of the Senedd? I don't dissent from the points that she makes at all. It's why we have tried to give the industry as long a lead-in time as we can to the reopening of self-contained accommodation, which I still hope will be possible for the Easter period, and have said that, in the period beyond 12 April, then the start of the opening of outdoor hospitality, which is an intrinsic part of the tourism industry, of course, in south-west Wales—that that will be on the table for us to consider at that point, provided the public health circumstances of Wales allow. 

Llywydd, I don't suppose, if I do this, you probably will be able to see the front of this document—I wanted to do it, simply because it has such a fantastic picture from the Member's own constituency. And this is the document we published last week: 'Let's Shape the Future. Working in partnership to reconstruct a resilient future for the visitor economy in Wales.' This is a document drawn up in partnership with the sector itself, and it tries to answer some of the questions that the Member has raised with us this afternoon. The picture there of North Beach and Harbour Beach in Tenby reminds us all of what fantastic natural assets we have here in Wales and which the Member has represented here in the Senedd. And we will work alongside the sector for as long as we can, to make sure that it can reopen as it did last year, carefully but successfully and in a way that allowed it to deal with the challenges that the Member has identified.

Helen Mary Jones. Helen Mary Jones.

Diolch, Llywydd. Apologies—I was just waiting to be unmuted. The First Minister will be well aware of the long-term impact of the COVID closures on cultural businesses. I'm thinking of some that are partly in public ownership, like the Ffwrnes Theatre in Llanelli, but also some of our flagship institutions, like the millennium centre. Obviously, this will be a matter, ultimately, for the next Welsh Government to decide, but does the First Minister agree with me that these cultural businesses will continue to need support well into next year, the next financial year, because of the income that they've already lost? And what plans does he have, should he be part of the next Government, to ensure that we don't lose these vital cultural institutions, particularly after all the investment and support that's gone into them already?

Well, I thank Helen Mary Jones for that important question as well, Llywydd. She will have seen yesterday that the Welsh Government announced £30 million in additional investment in the cultural recovery fund—that's in addition to the £63 million that we've made available in this financial year. That £30 million will help the sector in the first six months of the next financial year, and it's there for all the reasons that Helen Mary has identified: the fragility of the sector during coronavirus, when audiences are simply not possible in a safe way; the freelancer nature of that economy—and that £30 million is in addition to the £10 million that we've already made available; the only part of the United Kingdom to have a freelancer fund, and very important to people who earn their living in the cultural sector—and because of what the cultural sector will mean to us all once this pandemic is behind us. Because we will want to make sure that those very important institutions and the joy they give to people, after such a difficult time—and we will be there to continue to support them.

The £30 million, as I say, is designed to support the sector up until September and then it will be for an incoming Government to see what can be done to support it beyond that, as, we hope, we can restore to the sector more opportunities for it to do what it wants to do, which is to be welcoming people to its venues and earning a living for itself.