Adam Price: Can I ask the First Minister that, when the Government has made a decision in terms of any changes that it's going to introduce, it does bring a statement to this Senedd later this afternoon? We've always supported as decentralised as possible an approach. It may be, of course, that you can reach a point where that is no longer possible and you need to introduce nationwide changes, but...
Adam Price: Diolch, Llywydd. Could the First Minister present to the Senedd the Government's proposals in terms of the changes to coronavirus restrictions, as the Prime Minister has just done as regards England in the last hour, and the First Minister of Scotland is shortly to do in the Scottish Parliament? And in doing so, could he say whether he agrees with what the opposition parties in Westminster...
Adam Price: In six weeks' time, the UK Government's furlough scheme will end, and the looming cliff edge will leave thousands of workers facing the crippling uncertainty of unemployment. If a further rise in COVID cases means local lockdowns will have to be imposed in other areas over the coming months, and if the UK Government does not act, does the Welsh Government have a contingency plan to offer a...
Adam Price: The forecasting team at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine are reporting currently their estimate, as of 11 September, of the R figure for Wales as being 1.43, which would put Wales as having the highest rate of growth currently in the UK and a doubling time of just over six days. Do you recognise those estimates, First Minister? If not, what are the Welsh Government's latest...
Adam Price: Diolch yn fawr, Llywydd. BMA Cymru Wales has warned that a second COVID peak is highly likely this winter, and is the No. 1 concern among the medical profession, as it is, I'm sure, for all of us. Could I urge the First Minister to give serious consideration to adopting elements of the 10-point winter plan that we published today, which is designed to avoid both a second wave and a second...
Adam Price: First Minister, lockdown has highlighted the importance of having a safe and secure home. Shelter Cymru estimates that 42 per cent of private tenants in Wales are vulnerable to no-fault evictions, which you promised in your conference address last year that you would ban. In addition, of course, in the wake of the pandemic, 40 per cent of renters in Wales are estimated to be falling behind on...
Adam Price: Diolch. First Minister, testing has been a key feature of the response to the coronavirus pandemic worldwide. Two weeks ago, researchers at Yale University secured emergency Food and Drug Administration approval for their saliva-based COVID-19 test. Now, there are two main advantages to a saliva test: it's less invasive, yet comparable in accuracy to the current test; and it costs as little...
Adam Price: Data from the Office for National Statistics recently published showed that the mortality rate for Wales was 2.78 per cent higher than the average mortality rate between 2015 and 2019 in the first six months of this year. It's important to acknowledge that that was lower than both England and Scotland, but Wales, nevertheless, was ranked the fifth-highest country for excess deaths in Europe...
Adam Price: Thank you, Llywydd. It's very encouraging that the number of new cases recorded in Wales is low, now consistently in the dozens and not surpassing 100. Isn't this the time, First Minister, for us to adopt a strategy of eradicating the virus—a zero-COVID strategy, as it's called—bringing us in line with the comments of the Scottish First Minister, who said that every nation in the UK must...
Adam Price: Diolch, Llywydd. At the heart of this historic first debate, this parliamentary session's last debate, is the simple but fundamental proposition that the decision on whether Wales should become an independent nation must rest alone with the people of Wales. We believe that Wales's right to determine its constitutional future, including the right to become an independent country, should the...
Adam Price: Thank you—Deputy Minister?
Adam Price: Acting Presiding Officer—you've had three titles already this afternoon. First Minister, this will be your final legislative statement in this Senedd. I'm grateful for you having shared a copy with us and for the opportunity to have further discussions with you during the autumn. Now, even before COVID struck, our assessment of the Bills that you as a Government decided to bring forward was...
Adam Price: I think the point in that study and, indeed, of other scientists who have vigorously supported the use of face masks, is, as you change the level of restrictions and you therefore lead to more people being in more contact, having a face covering is an additional measure that can then change the number of cases and, indeed, the number of deaths. Can I just stay with the care sector? If the...
Adam Price: The University of Washington's Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation recently projected the difference between universal use of face masks in the UK between now and November would be 20,000 additional deaths. On a proportionate basis, we would be talking about around a 1,000 deaths potentially in Wales. As part of the review that he's referred to, would he specifically ask the technical...
Adam Price: Diolch, Llywydd. First Minister, last week, a study published by Oxford's Leverhulme Centre for Demographic Science found that face coverings are effective in reducing the spread of COVID-19 for the wearer and those around them, and this adds, of course, to a growing body of evidence that supports the same conclusion. The study further noted that after the World Health Organization announced...
Adam Price: The Royal College of Nursing and 13 health unions have written to the English Prime Minister, as he's come to be known, asking for discussions on an early NHS pay rise. Will you show the way and also reward our NHS staff? If the current health crisis has taught us anything, it is that valuing those who look after us at the dawn of our lives, the twilight of our lives, and every point in...
Adam Price: The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the importance of the care sector and, I have to say, after reading the Health, Social Care and Sport Committee report today, also its neglect. The care sector has been characterised by zero-hours contracts and low pay for decades. PayScale research estimates the hourly rate on average, for example, to be £8.19. Valuing our care workers must surely start...
Adam Price: First Minister, I've been contacted by the owner of a care home in my constituency. His employees, as he puts it, are hard working and undervalued, and he urgently wants the Welsh Government to honour the promise made in May that every worker in a care setting would receive £500. Waiting for Westminster has never served us well in Wales and, yes, the UK Treasury needs to find its moral...
Adam Price: Thank you, Llywydd. May I at the outset endorse the comments on the appalling genocide in Srebrenica? They will not be forgotten.
Adam Price: Even in those countries that have been successful in disease suppression, of course the price of liberty from the virus, if you like, is eternal vigilance, particularly as regards new outbreaks, and we see possibly in Leicester as well, don't we, the danger potentially of not having local intelligence turned quickly enough into local action. So, drawing on recent experience in Wales as well,...
