Questions Without Notice from Party Spokespeople

Part of 1. Questions to the Minister for Economy – in the Senedd at 1:47 pm on 16 November 2022.

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Photo of Dawn Bowden Dawn Bowden Labour 1:47, 16 November 2022

Thank you, Heledd Fychan, for that question, and I think it's a very fair point. As you quite rightly say, we do have a basic income pilot running in Wales and we do need to evaluate that. I think that evaluation will then inform where we take that scheme further, beyond the pilot. You'll be aware that, through the pandemic, we did have a support scheme for freelancers in particular that wasn't available in England, and we had a freelance partnership working arrangement agreement with local authorities. So, we are very well aware of the precarious nature of freelance work, in particular, in the arts and creative sector, so we did seek to protect them. What I would say is I absolutely would not rule out what you're putting to me today, but I can't give you any guarantees, because we clearly do need to evaluate that basic income pilot before we can make any future decisions around that.