Part of 1. Questions to the Minister for Social Justice – in the Senedd at 1:38 pm on 12 January 2022.
I'd like to thank the Member for this very important question, because we've seen, as you said, Peter Fox, throughout the pandemic that strong and independent voluntary sector critical to the well-being of Wales and our communities, and that culture of volunteering proving itself with so many coming forward to support people, neighbours and communities. So, just to confirm, last year, we did launch the third phase of the third sector resilience fund, with over £4 million to help viable voluntary sector organisations survive—and that's the key point of your questions—and be sustained through the pandemic and be resilient. And this has since been increased from £4 million to £7.2 million. Of course, that is crucial to ensuring that we also have an extra £1 million for our volunteering Wales grant, to support those who are coming forward in this way, but working very closely with the third sector partnership council in terms of the way forward and for the recovery and the resilience of the third sector. We are supporting the third sector in every way we can—nationally, regionally and locally.