7. What plans does the Welsh Government have to help businesses in the Vale of Clwyd to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic? OQ57464

Thank you. As the Member knows, we are providing significant resources to help recover. We are providing almost £140 million, when you take into account of the £120 million economic resilience fund, the £15.4 million cultural recovery fund, and the initial £3 million put into the spectator sports fund. That's the emergency business support that we've provided. Since April 2020, the Member may wish to know that businesses in Denbighshire have received over £65.7 million in grant support. That does not, though, include the support from the separate cultural recovery fund packages, which compare very well with those available across the border, which I'm sure the Member will be pleased to hear. 

Yes, I appreciate that response, Minister. A large number of businesses in my constituency rely on the tourism and leisure markets, as do many across the north Wales coastal strip, and the past two years have been pretty disastrous, as you'll be aware. Not only do these businesses need continued help with such things as business rates in order to help with large losses incurred over recent times, but they also need assurances that future restrictions will be the very last resort. So, Minister, with that in mind, what discussions have you had with Cabinet colleagues about ensuring the Vale of Clwyd and, indeed, the whole of Wales, is fully open for business when the tourist season begins in just a few short weeks? 

Actually, I think your characterisation that tourism and leisure have been disastrous in the last two years doesn't quite accord with the reality of what's happened. Some businesses really have suffered, but a range of others in the tourism sector have actually done extraordinarily well, and that's because many people have taken their holidays and more time visiting other parts of the UK. And actually, north Wales has done particularly well out of that. We've seen the pressure that's produced in a range of local communities as a result of the extraordinary success of the visitor economy in the last two years. A number of businesses say they've had better years as a result than they previously had expected. That, of course, comes alongside other businesses, especially those that have run events and visitor attractions, individual ones, where it has been much more challenging. So, the picture is more mixed than the Member presents.

And, actually, when it comes to introducing public health protection measures that affect the way businesses can operate, this is never the first option of the Government. And if you had ever had to have the responsibility to consider the impact on public health—the physical impact of COVID, the mental health impact of COVID, and what it means to act or not to act—then I don't think you'd be quite so cavalier in painting restrictions and protective measures as something that Ministers want to do because we like to do it. That's been the broad tenor of many Conservative comments. It is always a balanced approach, recognising the harm that is done to the economy in having public health protections, and the balance of trying to protect people's health and well-being, so that more people are able to go to work, more people are able to spend their hard-earned money in businesses here in Wales. And I believe that our proportionate approach is one that is bearing fruit as we exit the restrictions that we have introduced in better shape than other parts of the United Kingdom, most notably England.