6. Statement by the Counsel General and Minister for European Transition: Coronavirus (COVID-19)

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 5:20 pm on 6 May 2020.

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Photo of Darren Millar Darren Millar Conservative 5:20, 6 May 2020

Thank you for those answers, Minister. Can I just ask you as well about how you're working with other Governments across the United Kingdom? Clearly, we've heard messages from the First Minister and other Ministers about the desire to lift the current restrictions on a pan-UK basis, and, of course, we all recognise that, in terms of our economic links, for example, there is a big east-west dimension to the Welsh economy, particularly in north Wales and in parts of the M4 corridor, which we can't ignore. So, if restrictions are lifted on one side of the border and not on the other, that will add all sorts of complications, potentially, to the way that we come out of the pandemic and recover from it.

So, can you tell us precisely what sort of discussions you are having? I know that it's obviously important that we ensure that Wales's interests are looked after within any kind of recovery that we have and lifting of restrictions, but can you also give me some assurances as well that there won't be different geographic approaches within Wales that could potentially increase the risk of an increased infection rate in places where, for example, tourism is important? If you re-open the gates on tourism, perhaps that could disadvantage places like north Wales and parts of mid and west Wales, too. One of the issues that seems to be the case is that we've obviously got different rates of the spread of the pandemic in different parts of the country, so I know that north Wales, for example, appears to be about two or three weeks behind the situation in south Wales. So, these are the sorts of things that people are expressing concern to me about through my postbag at the moment.