Questions Without Notice from Party Spokespeople

Part of 1. Questions to the Minister for Economy – in the Senedd at 1:52 pm on 19 January 2022.

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Photo of Vaughan Gething Vaughan Gething Labour 1:52, 19 January 2022

I think there were three particular questions there. On the first part, I simply don't agree with the Member's view around COVID passes and their impact. They're a measure that has helped us to keep sectors open where we would otherwise have had to introduce further protections that would have affected their ability to trade. We're just not going to agree on that. 

When it comes to the future for the sector, I'm optimistic about the future for the sector, because we are looking to come out of this phase of the pandemic, because I look forward to the pandemic being a point of history rather than the day-to-day reality that Ministers still have to manage. But in particular, when you come to the spring and the summer, when conditions have been much more benign, you can look forward to a bounce back in a range of activities. We've seen the way, as I said earlier, the visitor economy has made a really big difference, with more people coming to Wales, more people going into different businesses. The biggest challenge for many of those businesses has been having enough staff to cope with the demand that's come in. That's part of the challenge about having a tighter labour market that is nothing to do with the COVID pass or indeed the choices that this Government has made. I'm keen to have conversations with the sector so I don't try to impose a strategy on them, and that works in tandem with the work we are doing with a range of other businesses. We're in good shape to do that, as I've previously suggested.

When it comes to future funds being allocated, the reality is that if we have a further emergency situation we'll look to further emergency funding measures. We'd actually look for the UK Treasury to step up and do its job if any part of the UK needed to take further steps to protect public health. As the Member knows, in the draft budget unveiled by the finance Minister, it sets out a wide range of spending measures and it also makes clear we're using the maximum amount of resource we have available to help kick-start the economy and to support public services. I look forward to a full debate on the final budget.