Part of 3. Questions to the Minister for Economy, Transport and North Wales – in the Senedd at 11:55 am on 15 July 2020.
Well, thank you for that. I acknowledge that Lynne Neagle has been calling for this move for some time, but as the First Minister has set out in some detail earlier, these are difficult judgments and nuanced judgments with a balance of risks. We've been liaising closely with the trade unions, with the operators and with equality groups to work through the detail of this and how to make it operational, because as buses become more heavily used, it's going to be impossible to keep the 2m guidance being observed on buses. So, we're then looking to put in place a series of mitigation measures, including engineering changes, hand washing, sanitiser availability and so on, as well as face coverings. The face coverings alone, as Lynne Neagle acknowledges, is not a silver bullet, as she puts it. So, we've been working hard with the operators to make sure that awareness is raised about the package of things that need to be done to keep people as safe as we can.