“Covid Kitemark” could be produced to reassure consumers which businesses are safe to use

The Minister for the Economy has floated one possibility of how businesses could return to a form of normality and reassure customers they should be safe on their premises.

In an interview on Friday Wrexham.com referred to a survey by Ipsos Mori that stated 61% of people are ‘not very, or not at all comfy’ of returning to normal use of bars and restaurants, and 67% for sports and music events.

We asked Ken Skates AM if support would be in place for specific sectors, and how he saw things working in practice.

Skates told us, “This is really important, the the way that people feel about accessing workplaces, the way they feel about ask accessing leisure facilities, is vitally important not just to protect public health, but also to the health of the economy in order to support public confidence in returning to work and then returning to leisure facilities.

“We are looking at putting together protocols that can be put in place across all sectors. Those protocols will be familiar across all sectors, but there will be unique elements to each and every sector. That will include hospitality through to food manufacturing, and will include all types of workplaces.”

“We’re working with the UK government on what they’ve described as the Working Safety Program, which is guidance for workplaces to follow as we exit lockdown.

“What we’ve been working on as a Welsh Government in parallel for several weeks are protocols that are sector specific. So we’ve been working with Industry Wales, we’ve been working with the trades unions, and sector bodies, to look at what protocols can be put in place for each and every sector that would enable employees to have confidence about going back to work safely, and give confidence to customers to know that they’re accessing facilities where safe behaviours are being adhered to.”

An example of a hairdresser was given, “So how would somebody know the hairdresser’s on one side of the street is adhering to the same standard as another? It will be through the development and application of safe working protocols based on the guidance.

“We’re working with UK Government and working to implement, if at all possible, some form of an accreditation and kind of COVID-19 safe place Kitemark.

“So somebody walking down the street, wondering which which hairdressers they should go to, would be able to see on the door that kitemark that would give them assurance that once set foot through that door, they are going to be in a safe place, and the service that they will receive will be administered in a safe way.

He said the kitemark style system would “give public confidence in order to address the concerns that 61% of people have expressed in that survey”.

Noting the tourism industry as well as the sports, hospitality and events sectors we mentioned, he said: “The events industry has been hit incredibly hard, and it’s highly unlikely that the events industry will be able to attract the same sort of customer base immediately after that sector emerges from the lockdown that it enjoyed before we went into coronavirus. So, additional support for certain sectors may continue for some time, recognising the unique challenges that they face.

“I’ve been raising with UK Ministers, some of the sectors and activities related to those sectors that would require further, lengthier, support. So clearly, tourism, hospitality and events, perform part of that group of sectors that will need ongoing support and nursing and through to the point where a they can operate in a safe way, and people can have confidence to return to to gigs, returned to pubs, and so forth.”