Adam Price: Many countries have successfully suppressed the virus to near-zero new cases. New Zealand is regarded as the world leader, but it's not alone. Greece, Slovenia, Austria, Norway have also suppressed the virus to the extent that restrictions there are now limited and new cases rare, and, like Wales, those countries are not islands either. I take the First Minister's point, but would he like...
Adam Price: Diolch, Llywydd. First Minister, this week, we've seen some encouraging news from Scotland, with the number of confirmed COVID-19 deaths there falling to three in total over the last five days, and Professor Devi Sridhar predicting that Scotland could be practically COVID-free in terms of non-imported cases by the end of the summer. In England, by way of contrast, it's been reported that the...
Adam Price: Since 2015, Natural Resources Wales has been suffering a steady decline in funding, while being tasked with more and more responsibilities. NRW is now facing a further cut of £7.5 million. So, the Welsh Government is cutting back on funding, cutting back on tree planting, and seemingly cutting back on its commitment to tackling the climate emergency. Now, what many people in the Rhondda and...
Adam Price: We're in the middle of two immediate crises—health related and economic. But there is a third—the ecological crisis, which we can't afford to ignore. It will have long-term consequences, but there will also be some immediate ones, including an increased risk of flooding. Now, research by the universities of Birmingham and Southampton shows that planting trees around rivers could reduce...
Adam Price: First Minister, some residents had only returned to their homes following the February flooding when torrential rain fell in the village of Pentre last week, causing further damage to properties. In 2017 Welsh Ministers were expected to appoint a chair and members to the flood and coastal erosion committee before the end of that year. In reality, members of that committee, which was...
Adam Price: Diolch, Llywydd. On behalf of Plaid Cymru, can I send our deepest condolences to Oscar’s family—to Firdaus, Natasha—and to friends and Senedd colleagues, especially on the Conservative benches? Oscar was generous and genial to his core—a political free spirit in many ways; a larger than life character who could never be contained in the confines of any one party. He belonged to all of...
Adam Price: The way we teach our history has the capacity to either reproduce the past or change the future. So, First Minister, in addition to the general commitment you gave in your statement, which is very welcome, I was wondering if you would be prepared to give two further specific commitments today. The Welsh Government currently funds a woollen, maritime, slate and coal museum, even one for the...
Adam Price: First Minister, I warmly welcome the comments you made at the end of your statement and I would like to return to the issue of the implications for us in Wales of the appalling events in the United States. Now, who we commemorate from our past reflects our values as a society today. Would it be appropriate, therefore, in your view, First Minister, to conduct a Wales-wide review, as is...
Adam Price: Diolch, Llywydd. The need for a COVID inquiry is not in question in today's debate. What the motion and the amendments that have been tabled are trying to do is to establish the answers to other questions about the nature of the inquiry: who will appoint it, who will chair it, when will it begin, when will it produce its findings? And alongside the 'who' and the 'when' there is the question...
Adam Price: The Royal College of Nursing in Wales has said that the COVID work assessment tool introduced by NHS Wales, though welcomed, does not currently identify those workers from BAME backgrounds as being at a very high risk. Why is that, and will you work with them to get this right urgently? And will you also make sure that BAME voices are well represented in the work on building back better? In...
Adam Price: First Minister, the criminal murder of George Floyd at the hands of police officers in the United States has re-ignited the debate around racism on both sides of the Atlantic. Do you agree that structural racism lies at the heart of this injustice, and if we truly believe that black lives matter that we have to acknowledge that and address it? And is that structural racism, in your view, one...
Adam Price: Diolch, Llywydd. Can I first of all thank the First Minister for his kind remarks about the spirit of the amendments? There was a tantalising reference there to the one amendment that the Government hasn't been able to accept. I hope it's not the amendment calling for support for the request, the unanimous request, by the four chief constables and the four police and crime commissioners for...
Adam Price: I think it's important to place on the record that clinicians have criticised that length of delay—two months since the Royal College of Surgeons made the case in the first instance. Speed of decision making will no doubt be one of the key questions that a retrospective inquiry will want to look at, as the health Minister has already alluded to this week. You previously said you don't want...
Adam Price: First Minister, on 20 March, the Royal College of Surgeons recommended that anosmia, the loss of a sense of smell, should be added to the list of COVID-19 symptoms, and that was discussed by the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies on 24 March. A paper for SAGE on 16 April confirmed that the loss of smell and taste was a strong predictor of infection. Why did it take until Monday of...
Adam Price: Diolch, Llywydd. Earlier today, the Government published 'Test Trace Protect', probably, actually, one of the most important documents it's published so far as part of its policy around the virus. It was published at 13:22, so Members will not have had the opportunity, obviously, to study the document—eight pages long—in the depth that it requires. This will be our only opportunity today...
Adam Price: Two weeks ago, First Minister, when asked by Channel 4's Andy Davies at the daily press conference if the Welsh Government had gowns in its pandemic stockpile when coronavirus reached the UK, the health Minister confirmed that to be the case. Was that in fact correct?
Adam Price: First Minister, you wrote to me last week in response to a letter I wrote to you, confirming that there were, in fact, contrary to what the health Minister claimed, no gowns in the pandemic stockpile between June 2016 and February 2020. Now, in June last year, the new and emerging respiratory virus threats advisory group, the committee that advises the UK Government on the pandemic stockpile,...
Adam Price: Thank you, Llywydd. Before turning to my question, I would like to make a point of order at the end of the statement, if you would allow that, on the fact that the Government shared its strategy on testing and contact tracing exactly eight minutes before the beginning of this scrutiny session without briefing the opposition parties beforehand, as was promised to me this morning.
Adam Price: First Minister, if there is, potentially, scientific evidence that suggests that testing in a care home with 50 residents, without an outbreak, has clinical value, how is it possible that testing in a care home with 49 doesn't? Isn't that an entirely arbitrary threshold?
Adam Price: Yesterday, First Minister, you published figures that show that there were 1,239 deaths registered in care homes in April in Wales compared to 417 for the same month last year—an increase of 200 per cent. Now, you just said, in terms of care homes where there hasn't been a confirmed or suspected outbreak, that clinical advice wasn't in favour of testing residents in that case. But you are...
