7. Statement by the First Minister: Coronavirus (COVID-19)

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 10:37 am on 24 March 2020.

Alert me about debates like this

Photo of Dawn Bowden Dawn Bowden Labour 10:37, 24 March 2020

First Minister, can I firstly put on record my thanks to all of our key workers that are keeping our emergency and front-line services going, but also to put on record my thanks to you and to your Ministers for the way in which you've been handling this unprecedented situation that the country finds itself in? The regular updates and information, together with tailoring to the specific needs of Wales, has been very welcome and has helped me in advising my constituents in what has been a very worrying and distressing time for many people. And can I also say that you have my full support for the additional measures announced last night, which are a matter of a national necessity at present?

A number of questions have already been put to you and have been dealt with, however I wanted to raise two specific issues with you. Firstly, in terms of personal safety. I'm sure that I'm not alone in continuing to be alarmed at the behaviour of people in supermarkets across the country. Now, from where I live in Merthyr, I can see the big Tesco superstore, and I see, every morning, huge crowds going into that supermarket and coming out with trolleys full of goods that, in all honesty, they're never going to be able to use in just the space of a few days. And apart from the anti-social behaviour of stockpiling—which deprives other people of essential goods at a time when there should be no shortage—my main concern is the threat to public safety that people shopping in such numbers causes.

Now, as I understand it from friends that I have living in France, this isn't happening there. In France, only one person per trolley is allowed into the store. Everyone who comes into the store is offered hand sanitizer as they enter and they leave. There are one-way systems in operation, and clearly marked distancing in the stores. People are not attending in hordes, they're not stockpiling and panic buying, and no-one is going short. So, my question is: is there something that we can learn from how they are managing this in France? And are we now at a stage where some kind of restriction needs to be placed, both to support public safety but also to ensure that everyone can get their fair share of essential goods?

Secondly, this is an education matter, First Minister, so you may not be able to answer this, but I had a very distressed constituent contact me to say that as she's now on a zero-hours contract and currently has no work, she's applied for universal credit, but as we know, she'll have to wait a number of weeks before that comes through. In the meantime, she has two children at school, who up till now have not qualified—because she has been earning until this point—have not been eligible for free school meals, so while she can now apply to get them free school meals because of her changed circumstances, the process takes time, and the local authority, whilst they're not unsympathetic and know that the Welsh Government will provide additional money to deal with the current free school meal arrangements, are uncertain about whether additional money will come through for adding further emergency free school meals to their numbers. So, my questions are: do we know what arrangements DWP are putting in place to speed up universal credit payments, so that people like my constituent don't have to wait for five weeks for money due to them in this situation; and will additional money be made available to local authorities to allow them to both fast-track free school meal applicants and also to pay for the additional meals that would need to be made available?