Part of 1. Questions to the First Minister – in the Senedd at 1:36 pm on 4 June 2024.
Vaughan Gething
Labour
1:36,
4 June 2024
Thank you for the question. The futureproofing fund was launched by the economy Secretary on 20 May. It's a £20 million fund to provide discretionary financial assistance to microbusinesses and small and medium-sized enterprises in the retail, hospitality and leisure sectors. It's designed to help invest in measures to help them reduce their running costs, and to futureproof their businesses. I'm looking forward to seeing the applications that will come in for the different businesses we want to be able to support. It's part of what we look to do in investing in the future of our economy, in the jobs that our local communities and workers need. I want to see more tools in our armoury to do that, not desperately fighting against a deliberate attempt to take money and powers away from this Government and this Senedd. I expect there'll be more that we can do together, with local authorities, with businesses, if we do see a new start on 4 July. But we will carry on doing what we should do, with the powers we have, with the money that we have, to make those positive choices to support businesses in Caerphilly and beyond.
Ministers make up the Government and almost all are members of the House of Lords or the House of Commons. There are three main types of Minister. Departmental Ministers are in charge of Government Departments. The Government is divided into different Departments which have responsibilities for different areas. For example the Treasury is in charge of Government spending. Departmental Ministers in the Cabinet are generally called 'Secretary of State' but some have special titles such as Chancellor of the Exchequer. Ministers of State and Junior Ministers assist the ministers in charge of the department. They normally have responsibility for a particular area within the department and are sometimes given a title that reflects this - for example Minister of Transport.