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

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 2:15 pm on 20 May 2020.

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Photo of Carwyn Jones Carwyn Jones Labour 2:15, 20 May 2020

Thank you very much. Llywydd, you'll be very glad to know that I don't intend to try your patience this week with a very long question, if that, indeed, is what it was last week, so I'll be short. But just, very quickly, I'd like to remind the leader of the Brexit Party that, far from the British Prime Minister being stripped of powers, the people of Wales decided in 1997 and 2011 in referendums that, in fact, it was the Welsh Parliament and the Welsh Government that should exercise powers in the field of health.

Secondly, I do deplore the desire by some to see Westminster as always right. It's a sign of an inferiority complex, I think, that we have in Wales that, somehow, if England decides to do something different—it was England that broke ranks, not anybody else—then, therefore, they must be right and everyone else must be wrong. It's time to cast off those chains. 

My question is this, First Minister—we know that people are able to play certain sports and to take part in certain activities, providing, of course, that social distancing is respected. My question is this, then: golf clubs and tennis clubs have been mentioned, and there'll be other sports as well, but where people need to drive to get to a facility, as long as that facility is outdoors and as long as that is their nearest public facility, or the nearest facility where they are a member, which is the case of a club, would it be possible to give consideration as to whether further guidance might be available in order to help people in those circumstances? Clearly, we don't want people driving very long distances, but there'll be some activities, inevitably, where people will need to drive to get to them. It's impossible to make rules for every single circumstance, I understand that, but perhaps, First Minister, if not this afternoon, some consideration might be given just to making the situation a little clearer for those people.