Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 2:27 pm on 1 April 2020.
Vaughan Gething will deal in more detail with matters to do with the health service, Llywydd, but as far as testing is concerned can I say I think a co-ordinated approach across the four nations of the United Kingdom is a sensible approach here? We don't want to be competing with one another for scarce resources. Adam Price is right to say that we've had a higher level of testing in Wales than across our border in recent times. But, working together with colleagues in Scotland, Northern Ireland and England gives us some resilience in the system. It doesn't preclude us from looking for supplies of our own, but this is very competitive, as Members will understand. Working together is, I think, in the interest of Wales and of our friends and colleagues in other parts of the United Kingdom as well.
As far as PPE is concerned, local authorities can certainly secure supplies of their own if that's what they think they want to do. But, again, they wouldn't want to find themselves competing against one another in a marketplace, because that will certainly drive the market in the direction of the suppliers rather than the people who need it.
I don't think we plan, at the moment, to make that number a public number. The course of action for somebody in the health or social care service who has concerns about PPE is for that to be reported through their organisation and for the organisation to use that number. If the number were to be made available for everybody, then I think the risk is that it would get in the way of getting PPE to the places where it is most needed, rather than the system we have, where people who can perceive blockages at the ground level report that through their organisation, and the organisation then solves the problem by being in contact through the line.
In relation to construction, my understanding is the Scottish Government has issued guidance. It's not an instruction; it is guidance. We were in discussions with the Scottish Government on this yesterday and we'll be in discussions with them again tomorrow. I think the thing that we are wrestling with is to find a way of bearing down on construction sites where practice is not safe, where people are not separated by 2m, while at the same time making sure that we don't get in the way of essential construction work that we need for public purposes: the Grange University Hospital development; the work going on in Carmarthenshire in relation to leisure centre preparation; the work going on in Rhondda Cynon Taf and Conwy to respond to people flooded out of their homes; and to make sure that work is done to prevent flooding later in the year. Finding a legal way of identifying the things we want to continue and the things we don't want to continue has been challenging—we're discussing it with the Scottish Government to find whether we can act together on that matter.