Support for Businesses

Part of 1. Questions to the First Minister – in the Senedd at 2:20 pm on 23 March 2021.

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Photo of Mark Drakeford Mark Drakeford Labour 2:20, 23 March 2021

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.