12. Question No. 12—Building and ConstructionANDREW BAYLY (National—Hunua) to the Minister for Building and ConstructionQuestion No. 12—Building and Construction12. ANDREW BAYLY (National—Hunua) to the Minister for Building and Construction: Does she expect builders and their apprentices can fully resume work as lockdown restrictions are lifted?Hon KRIS FAAFOI (Minister of Broadcasting Communications and Digital Media) on behalf of the Minister for Building and Construction: The Government has been working for some time to minimise the impact of COVID-19 and its economic consequences on construction firms and workers. We've been working to ensure people can return to work as promptly and safely as possible. Construction Health and Safety New Zealand in conjunction with the joint Government and industry Construction Sector Accord published detailed construction health and safety standards and protocols to help develop a control plan. While everyone wants to get back to a work site we must do it safely. A return to a higher alert level is the worst-case scenario for the industry and our economy. Anyone wanting more information on those protocols can visit building.govt.nz where a full range of advice is available to them on how to operate under alert levels 3 2 and 1.Andrew Bayly: Does she have an estimate of how many of the 250000 builders and apprentices are currently back at work?Hon KRIS FAAFOI: On behalf of the Minister I don't have that number on me at the moment but as I said some clear guidelines were given to the construction sector over a week ago in order to ensure that they could return to work sites safely at level 3. My understanding of the situation is because of issues like social distancing on building work sites that would in some cases mean that not everyone who would normally be on a work site could to ensure the safety of those people on that work site. But hopefully if New Zealand pulls together through level 3 we can ensure more people can get back to building sites in order to work safely and continue economic activity.Andrew Bayly: Does she agree with the reports I've been receiving from the building industry that a large number of the 25000 building apprentices will be laid off before the end of the year?Hon KRIS FAAFOI: I've seen media reports to that effect and all I could say to that is that I think it is too early to tell exactly what those numbers might be. As has been mentioned by many Ministers as the House has resumed there is going to be an economic impact across all sectors. Exactly what that is at this stage is hard to tell but the Government is absolutely focused on making sure that we can protect every job that we can possible. But we have said from the outset that it is going to be difficult to save every job. One thing that we do want to make sure we can do—and other Ministers are working on this issue especially in relation to apprentices—is making sure that we make a commitment to upskilling and retraining people if they find themselves out of work and in need of a new career.Andrew Bayly: What reports has she seen on the number of building consents that could have been processed during the five-week lockdown but weren't and are still outstanding?Hon KRIS FAAFOI: On behalf of the Minister I don't have that number on me at the moment but I'm happy for the member to submit that as a written question. Obviously economic activity has slowed down as a result of being in lockdown for the last five to six weeks and I would expect that a number like that would have reduced.