Test, Trace and Protect

Part of 1. Questions to the First Minister – in the Senedd at 2:21 pm on 15 September 2020.

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Photo of Mark Drakeford Mark Drakeford Labour 2:21, 15 September 2020

(Translated)

I agree with the Member that the problems in the lighthouse labs are serious and it's important that the UK Government addresses those problems as quickly as possible. I do not agree at all with him when he said, as part of the independence that Plaid Cymru are forever suggesting, that the best way would be to be totally independent in this field and not to use the capacity that already existed throughout the whole of the United Kingdom. The Scottish Executive hasn't done that at all, and it didn't make any sense for us to do it either. And to be honest, here on the floor of the Senedd, people were saying to me, 'Why aren't you using the capacity that's already available in other systems?' And so we have used that capacity, and until three weeks ago, that system worked well. The challenge now is to do the work on a UK level to put the lighthouse labs back to where they were in August, and that's what we want to support.