Part of 1. Questions to the First Minister – in the Senedd at 1:38 pm on 11 January 2022.
Llywydd, I thank Rhianon Passmore for what she said at the start of her supplementary question. Here in Wales, we have a Government that is both capable and determined to take those difficult decisions that help to keep people safe and to keep our economy open. And we do so in the context of the latest omicron wave. I'd just caution Members about the most recent figures—they do show the start of a decline in the number of people falling ill; they are still astronomically high compared to what we would have seen in earlier parts of the pandemic, and it is not clear as to whether or not these are genuine falls or whether they are a result of fewer people presenting for PCR tests because of the substitution of lateral flow tests in a number of contexts where previously PCR tests would have been used. So, I think it will be a few days yet before we know whether those signs are genuine signs of a downturn in figures in Wales, or whether it's actually just a reflection of some policy changes.
In the meantime, of course we go on supporting the economy in the challenging circumstances that it faces: £120 million—money that this week will start to leave the Welsh Government and be in the hands of businesses in every part of Wales. Our many efforts to persuade the UK Government that the Treasury should be a Treasury for the whole of the United Kingdom, not just a Treasury that responds when English Ministers think that they need help in England, has simply fallen on deaf ears. That £120 million is money found from within our own resources, and we do go on, as Rhianon Passmore said, Llywydd, every day studying the figures and to have those conversations with different parts of the Welsh economy to make sure that we are doing what we can as a Government to help them as, together, we get through this latest very challenging time.