Part of 1. Questions to the Minister for Economy – in the Senedd at 1:36 pm on 29 September 2021.
Minister, you've probably covered most of this anyway in what you've just said, but the pandemic meant that many conventional working methods were severely impacted, and one of those methods that was turned upside down was working from the office. Homeworking, according to the Royal Society for Public Health, is having an adverse impact on many people's mental health, with 56 per cent of those asked saying they found it harder to switch off whilst working from home, and 67 per cent saying they felt less connected to colleagues. Whilst homeworking may be beneficial to business and organisations, and perhaps society as a whole at the moment, it's clear that employees using their houses as makeshift offices is not only potentially harmful to the economy, but it's also damaging to their mental health. Will the Minister outline what steps are being taken to encourage more people to perhaps start working from the office again? And that could apply to this place also.