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

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 2:10 pm on 29 April 2020.

Alert me about debates like this

Photo of Mark Reckless Mark Reckless Conservative 2:10, 29 April 2020

What is the point of fiddling with the legal framework that the UK Government and Parliament sets for England just to make it a bit different in Wales? Why is it important to follow rules a bit differently in Wales than in England? We saw many businesses close down who weren't legally required to, and a lot of those are working hard with customers, employees—sometimes with Government—to try and find ways in which they can reopen safely, and they apply their own common sense and their own knowledge of their individual business to do that. Yet, in Wales, they're also going to have to do jump through, comply, with legal regulations set by Welsh Government, by Ministers and civil servants, who won't know those individual businesses, and in most circumstances haven't worked in business themselves. How many jobs are we going to lose because companies decide they've got 20 times the business in England than they have in Wales and they don't want to take that compliance risk with those legal regulations you put specifically for Wales?

Why is it, in Wales, that people are only allowed to leave the house to exercise once a day, but there's no equivalent requirement in England? Why do the same words in regulations supposedly mean something different in Wales, according to Welsh Government, than what people in England are told by the police they mean there? For instance, why is it okay to go by car to an appropriate place to exercise in England, but not apparently in Wales? Why should there be a restriction on cycling in Wales but not in England, that somehow it's only acceptable to do that for exercise if it's within a reasonable distance of someone's home?

And the legal requirements in the regulations were, I believe, the same in Wales for lifting these extraordinary requirements and restrictions put on people, that they have to be lifted as soon as they're no longer necessary or proportionate for the risk of infection from coronavirus, and Welsh Ministers must do that. The UK Government, it's got five tests, but they are specific to those, go to those issues. You have published a much wider set of approaches that you say are rooted in Welsh values, but they don't seem to be rooted in the law that you're required to apply. They include: does the measure have a high positive equality impact? Are the measures consistent with your plans for an equal and greener Wales and its assessment with the Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015? And do they provide opportunities for widening participation in a more inclusive society? Today, we believe, what does Gordon Brown think? Why are those things applied here, but not in England, to get out of these draconian regulations devastating our economy and well-being?