Part of 3. 3. Topical Questions – in the Senedd at 2:50 pm on 12 July 2017.
Thank you for those points, Rhun. Again, I know you’re a member of the cross-party group as well and have taken a genuine interest in this issue. I, too, share the admiration of not just yourself but other Members in the Chamber for the tenacity of people who have not given up, not just on fighting for an individual cause for them and their family, but for a much wider cause that affected many other people across Wales and the United Kingdom. I also welcome your constructive approach to actually the potential for a cross-party letter as well. I think that could be very helpful.
In terms of the position of Welsh families, I’ve made clear that I want to make sure that families are directly and properly involved. And, of course, as a Government, we’ll need to talk to those people to give them an opportunity to tell us what they want to see, as well as directly trying to speak to the UK Government. I think, in the position that we take up as a Government, what we want to make sure is that we’re genuinely speaking on behalf of those families that have been directly affected. So, I am giving thought to how we do that. We have the ability to directly contact those families and to see what they want to do, as well as the Haemophilia Society and other support groups that already exist to support a number of those families. I have in mind the 10 points the Haemophilia Society have already set out previously for their position on the inquiry. So, that’s a helpful start for us as well, but we need to check whether there are other issues that families directly want to have brought up in the ongoing and unfinished conversation about the membership of the inquiry and its remit.