, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
General Ministerial Scrutiny - Minister for Economy
So, yes, it isn't a legal contract, but then, to be honest, politicians and governments and organisations regularly talk about a contract with people that isn't a legally binding contract. I remember for the last election, the current Prime Minister setting…
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
General Ministerial Scrutiny - Minister for Economy
So, we have a range of broad levers to promote and influence fair work outcomes. So, there's direct influence we can have in the public sector that's devolved. That's not the tourism sector, of course, but that can affect broader employment conditions and…
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
General Ministerial Scrutiny - Minister for Economy
Yes, I've raised it, as indeed have other Ministers in our engagement with UK Ministers. We think that removing that early could actually harm the economy as it's still bouncing back. We're still not—. Well, the overall economy in Wales is back to…
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
General Ministerial Scrutiny - Minister for Economy
It is something that comes up as we look at the potential for business rates reform. But we have a significant package of business rate relief coming out this year, which is at least as good as every business over the border. And so they're certainly not…
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
General Ministerial Scrutiny - Minister for Economy
I certainly think tourism is part of a regeneration tool. And I certainly did enjoy my visit to Zip World, and I look forward to going back with a very excited young boy—he wants to try it out for himself. But it is then about what you do, not just in going…
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
General Ministerial Scrutiny - Minister for Economy
Well, we do have—. We've got some small capital grants, for example, the Brilliant Basics programme, where we are looking at smaller capital investment. And look, I think the starting point is that you would expect every organisation to say, 'If we had more…
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
General Ministerial Scrutiny - Minister for Economy
It really does depend on what we do with the strategic vision and the different challenges; we have to come up with the strategy. So, we're already putting money, for example, into skills; we talked about that earlier in general scrutiny. Now, some of that…
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
General Ministerial Scrutiny - Minister for Economy
Well, it's the case that we haven't agreed the strategy, and if I give you a ballpark figure then I'm plucking something out of the air, because we haven't signed it off, we haven't agreed what the strategy is going to be. And in some of this, it can be about…
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
General Ministerial Scrutiny - Minister for Economy
Well, I don't blame the Welsh Retail Consortium for asking for an action plan and for extra money. Why wouldn't they? Part of our challenge, though, is that we'll need to see what we actually end up agreeing in terms of the retail strategy to see the…
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
General Ministerial Scrutiny - Minister for Economy
I only became aware of those comments in preparing for this meeting. I have to say that I was pretty surprised and disappointed that that's what the Wales Tourism Alliance is saying. The Wales Tourism Alliance represents small and medium businesses in that…
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
General Ministerial Scrutiny - Minister for Economy
Well, the honest answer is a bit circular. Of course, we haven't finished the retail strategy. We are still engaging with it. We published an update, as it were, on where we are getting with the retail strategy. But, again, we are working with both sectors to…
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
General Ministerial Scrutiny - Minister for Economy
Diolch, Cadeirydd.
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
General Ministerial Scrutiny - Minister for Economy
It's a bit of a curate's egg because, on the one hand, we have got really positive and constructive engagement where officials talk with us. We still have, though, a challenge over where we're not involved. So, you have this difference. So, there's pretty…
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
General Ministerial Scrutiny - Minister for Economy
There's a squirrel in the garden, I'm afraid, Chair. Nothing I can do about that. [Laughter.]
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
General Ministerial Scrutiny - Minister for Economy
I'll start, and then Andrew can provide some more detail on this. So, we're still seeking clarification on the implementation arrangements. It goes back to Andrew's point from earlier about what you need to do to successfully implement the free trade…
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
General Ministerial Scrutiny - Minister for Economy
So, the extra money I've announced today is part of trying to make sure we have got that capacity. It's also some of the budget choices I've made to try to make sure that Business Wales isn't denuded, and again that's part of the challenge of needing to…
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
General Ministerial Scrutiny - Minister for Economy
We do try to use Business Wales as a singe door to all of our Business Wales support, so it is that point: come to Business Wales, and we will help you to find the right person and the right place to get the extra support. And I think they have a really good…
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
General Ministerial Scrutiny - Minister for Economy
Interestingly, I've just been at the Explore Export Wales conference, where we've been talking about improving our exporting journey across the world, and Australia is one of the areas where we do have a presence as well. So, it isn't that we don't have an…
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
General Ministerial Scrutiny - Minister for Economy
Well, look, we've had a range of assessments, and it's one of the things that UK Ministers have regularly said: 'We don't think there's any threat at all.' They've not agreed with us on some of the differential animal welfare standards, where practices that…
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
General Ministerial Scrutiny - Minister for Economy
Overall, we think there could be some benefit, but we think it's relatively minor in the overall impact on trade. So, there are some areas—so, on metals, pharmaceuticals and professional services—where there could be opportunities for Wales. So, it certainly…
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
General Ministerial Scrutiny - Minister for Economy
Bore da.
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
General Ministerial Scrutiny - Minister for Economy
Well, this is a real consideration, a concern for us, and both my predecessor and I have had to make choices on relaxing the eligibility rules, otherwise we would have seen people artificially prevented from completing. As all of us know, the pandemic…
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
General Ministerial Scrutiny - Minister for Economy
So, we still think—and to be fair, you've been consistent in your interest in this—degree apprenticeships are part of the future. So, whilst not necessarily covered by the whole sweep of the apprenticeship incentive scheme, we're committed—and it's in the…
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
General Ministerial Scrutiny - Minister for Economy
If I get any of this wrong, Claire will come in and correct me, but we think that the apprenticeship incentive scheme has been really successful; it's encouraged businesses to carry on recruiting apprentices whilst managing the challenges of COVID. Because…
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
General Ministerial Scrutiny - Minister for Economy
So, the young person's guarantee, as you know, became fully functional in October last year, and, as at the end of February, the figures we have are 2,296 young people have received advice and guidance from Working Wales. We've commenced a tracking activity…
