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

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 5:33 pm on 6 May 2020.

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Photo of Jeremy Miles Jeremy Miles Labour 5:33, 6 May 2020

I thank Vikki Howells for those questions. The first point she makes— it absolutely goes to the heart of it, doesn't it? So, convening round-tables, in a sense, is—it is what it is, in that sense of the process of doing it. The key is to take the output and the reflections and make sure that then actually helps shape our understanding. So, the round-tables, and the external process that follows from it, is one of those strands. There is a second strand that is designed to engage our social partners—obviously with whom we have very well established relationships already—and then a third strand is one which is around ensuring that the various stakeholders in the various departments that Government have are able to feed directly into our thoughts, in a similar way to the work that we did in relation to preparing for Brexit, to ensure there's a network that people can feel they can use to make sure their voices are heard directly to Government. 

But, alongside the work of the external group, the First Minister has asked me to chair an internal group, which is really focused on recovery and the future, to make sure that those external reflections are fed directly into the work of the Government at large, really. And that will have a range of representation on it in the usual way. So, the objective is to make sure that policy development and planning for the future, as I mentioned to Darren Millar earlier, has a kind of common understanding across Governments, that we are testing our assumptions against that common projection of what things might look like. 

In terms of the second set of questions, I've begun to read the report; I haven't yet concluded it. It's about 800 pages, I think, so it's quite some undertaking, but I've started to read it, and I'm meeting the commissioner, if not this week, then early next week—I think this week, actually—to talk exactly about the sorts of things that she has referred to in her question. Plainly, much of that work, as she will know if she's started to engage with the report—. It says, doesn't it, that COVID has come in at the point when the report was being worked on, so there are some reflections in there about that, as you would expect. But, yes, I am looking forward to meeting with her in the next few days to do exactly that.