Questions Without Notice from Party Spokespeople

Part of 2. Questions to the Minister for Housing and Local Government – in the Senedd at 2:40 pm on 4 March 2020.

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Photo of Julie James Julie James Labour 2:40, 4 March 2020

We had a special Cabinet meeting just this morning to discuss preparedness for the coronavirus outbreak, attended by all Cabinet colleagues. We've been working for some time with the local resilience fora and local authorities to make sure that we have the best possible plan. Obviously we're planning for the reasonable worst outcome, whilst hoping for the best possible outcome, but you have got to do both of those. So, we have of course discussed things like the ramifications of sickness in the various workforces, sickness in the local authorities, mutual assistance, all of the things that—. I've very pleased to say that the local resilience fora are well advanced on plans for a pandemic, not for this specific virus, but for pandemic planning. That's been going on for many, many years. And so we have got well-advanced plans for that. We don't want people to panic unnecessarily, so they should be reassured that those plans exist. They also include incorporation of large numbers of third sector bodies with whom we routinely work on public service issues—the Red Cross, voluntary councils and so on. So, we're very much planning for that reasonable worst case scenario, whilst very much hoping for the best possible outcome.