3. What lessons has the Welsh Government learnt from the pilot test events in order to develop processes and guidance that will allow events to return safely in Wales? OQ56529

Thank you to Llyr for that question. Good progress is being made with the pilot event programme, and five pilot events have already been held. The emerging findings, for example in relation to COVID testing for events, will be used to prepare for the next 21-day review. We will be considering then the potential to develop a phased reopening of events.

It was good, of course, to see crowds in the Newport and Swansea games recently—and Wrexham too, hopefully, before too long. But, whilst you've prioritised those football teams playing in the English leagues, I want to know why you've ignored the teams playing in our main national Welsh premier league here in Wales. The clubs playing in the English pyramid system don't represent grass-roots football in Wales, and piloting events in the Cymru Premier league, for example, would be far more relevant to teams across Wales.

And, isn't it a farce that Welsh premier supporters have to cram into pubs to watch games, or indeed to watch them from the clubhouse overlooking the field, rather than doing that from the stands, in the open air, with social distancing? It's not too late, of course, to change that. So, will you reconsider allowing some supporters to attend the final, crucial game of the season between Caernarfon and Newtown this Saturday—the biggest game in the history of Caernarfon football club?

Well, Llywydd, may I say 'good luck' to Wrexham on Saturday? Hopefully, Wrexham will join Swansea and Newport in the success that they've already had.

Now, they were practical considerations when we made the choice of where the pilots could be held. There is a great deal of work behind the pilots. It's impossible just to say, 'Well, on Saturday, something else can take place.' Public Health Wales is part of every pilot. Local authorities are part of every pilot event. Whatever we use for the pilots, the local groups are part of that pilot as well. So, it wasn't practically possible to hold a pilot in every place and for everything, and to do so safely. That's why we've had a list of five pilot events and that's why we're going to learn the lessons from those to see whether we can do more in future, but to do that in a way that is safe for the people who attend the events and that is successful for those people who run those events too.

Janet Finch-Saunders.

Diolch, Llywydd. My congratulations to you and our First Minister—to you both—for your new, well, current, respective roles. It's nice to be back here on the floor of the Siambr and, indeed, as an elected Member of this Senedd, and I thank the people of Aberconwy for bestowing what is a huge privilege.

Now, whilst the pilot test events to develop processes and guidance are to be welcomed, your own current Welsh Government guidance for the arts sector does have a major contradictory point. The actual wording is causing a dilemma for one of our leading Aberconwy music festivals, which is soon, hopefully, to be taking place within a local church. So, I ask you, First Minister: why does your guidance, entitled 'Rehearsing, performing and taking part in the performing arts', allow wind instruments to be played indoors, but the guidance on reopening places of worship prohibits those wind instruments from being used? Your planning has also hit a duff note with our larger scale outdoor events. Indeed, Adam Newton, Tough Runner UK, has referred to the Welsh Government as only having half a plan. So, therefore, will you put a road map in place for larger scale events to recommence and for this to include a wider variety of settings, thereby bringing some normality back to our much-held long traditions? Diolch.

Well, Llywydd, as I explained in answer to an earlier question, if we are able—and it's an 'if', isn't it—if we are able to move to alert level 1 at the end of this three-week review, then that will come with new possibilities for events to resume indoors and outdoors across Wales. When that happens, they will still necessarily have to observe the protections that we have against the resumption of coronavirus. And that is where the guidance always begins, and that is where this Government has often taken a different view to the Member, I believe.

Our starting point always is: how can we keep people safe in these events? How can we make sure that they are run in a way that does not create avoidable risks of coronavirus beginning to circulate again? That's why the guidance is provided; that's why it differentiates between what can be done in one context and another. It is always carefully drawn up, it is always based on the best advice that we have. And while it may appear—[Interruption.] While it may sometimes appear to be inconsistent, that is because the context will be different in a way that leads to that different advice. Where people ask us to explain more why the restrictions are necessary, then of course we try to do that, but the restrictions are never intentionally perverse, and they always start from that question: what can be done safely here in the context that coronavirus poses for us at any one time?

My hope, and I know it's the hope that the Member has, is that circumstances continue to improve, and as they continue to improve, so more will be able to be restored in terms of outdoor events, and the performance, singing, musical instruments indoors as well. But the limiting factor always has to be doing things in a way that does not put Wales and people at risk.

First Minister, it is good to be back, and since we were talking about the Cymru Premier league, I will take this opportunity now, as the proudest club ambassador in Wales, to put on the record my congratulations to the Nomads for keeping the title in Wales.

First Minister, I would be grateful if you could update the Chamber on the test-and-trace pilots being carried out in the five parts of north Wales, and if you could outline the specific detail of the extra support being provided to those who are self-isolating.

Well, I thank Jack Sargeant for that. He's right, of course: there's more than one sort of pilot going on in north Wales at the moment. And congratulations, of course, to the good people of Connah's Quay on the success that the Nomads have had this season.

The pilots, Llywydd, that Jack Sargeant refers to are the pilots that we are carrying out to provide additional help beyond the £500 self-isolation payment that we make to people who we ask to self-isolate, for their own protection and the protection of others, and where they don't have sufficient income to make that possible. Now, what we've learnt is, from work already carried out in the Cwm Taf area, that there are other forms of help that you can add to the money that make a difference to people's ability to self-isolate in the way that we would like them to do. Sometimes that's immediate help, with food and with fuel poverty; sometimes it's help with longer term issues such as mental health support and digital exclusion.

There are going to be five pilots across north Wales. The one in Holyhead has already begun—I'm sure that the local Member will know that it's operating out of the Citizens Advice office in Holyhead—and on 7 June and 14 June, further pilots will begin. They're designed to offer further help to people, to make sure that those for whom self-isolation is a greater challenge than others get not just the money that we're able to provide, but extra support to make that experience more manageable for them. We learn a lot from the pilots, and then the things that are successful and make a difference—the plan will be to do more of that on a wider geographical basis.