I welcome the opportunity to contribute in this debate today. I appreciate I wasn't on the committee at the time of this review that was undertaken, or this inquiry that was undertaken, but I'd just like to pay tribute to my predecessor, Angela Burns, for the work that she did in her time on the committee, and also the Chair of the committee, the staff and the other Members who have produced a very detailed and concise piece of work, with some key recommendations, to say the least on it. And the Government, by and large, has engaged with those recommendations, although, as a politician of some 13 years standing, you're always a bit reticent when you hear 'agreed in principle' because, regrettably, that very often doesn't get delivered, and many, if not all of these recommendations, if taken in their entirety, would add hugely to an improved offer, an improved response, now that some months after this report was published we're seeing what many would call the second wave of COVID hitting many of our towns and cities and communities the length and breadth of Wales.

I think, in the report, as almost like a third person coming to it, reading it from cover to cover, the index of dates at the back is a timely reminder of how quick we've travelled in this year, from January right the way through to when this report was published in July, and the level, the volume, and the complete transformation in services, the way Government responds—I mean, you only need to look at our work here today and yesterday, how COVID has consumed everything that we do because it is all-encompassing.

Reading some of the comments around PPE and the recommendations around PPE, it was a timely reminder of the real challenges that the sectors face, both health and the care sector in particular. And reading it, it emphasised the point how health and the care sector need to be taken as equal partners, rather than one sector getting the provision of PPE in the first instance and then maybe the care sector getting what was left over and maybe playing catch-up. That does need to be rectified, if that situation of constraint of supply does happen again. And I'm pleased to hear the assurances of the Minister, saying that the supply of PPE has been greatly enhanced since the beginning of the outbreak, but it is really important that that parity of esteem is listened to and understood. In particular, if the Minister in his response could highlight what progress has been made in relation to the work that the Government have commissioned from Deloitte about the demand mapping around PPE, again, that would be good to understand how, if that squeeze comes on in the winter months, there will be equity across Wales in the supply chain of PPE.

Testing, as we hear much about these days, and the concerns around testing—in the absence of a vaccine, testing is really our only defence to be on top of this virus and to understand where the prevalence of the virus is and, ultimately, how it is tracking through our communities. Reading some of the recommendations that have been put in place, and, importantly, how they'll be deployed is of critical importance, in particular when you think of ramping up the volume of tests that will be available. It is a little discouraging to see that, in July of this year, the Welsh Government's own testing capacity was at 15,000; here, some two months later, in September, it's still on 15,000, and the comments that the First Minister himself made—I applaud him for his honesty—that maybe we'd be able to deal with that on a day basis, but it wouldn't be sustainable over any long-term period of time to use that full capacity. And so, working united across the United Kingdom, despite the problems of the lighthouse labs, will be the only solution to bring a real volume of testing here into Wales, and indeed other parts of the United Kingdom. It would be my sincere hope that many of the glitches that have hit the system can be ironed out.

I hope the Minister can give us an up-to-date position on how the testing numbers are being deployed, because, very often, as politicians, as the report highlights, we fixate on capacity, but it's the ability for the whole system to work, from the capacity through to the number of tests that are done, to the response rate, as the Chair highlighted, and the importance of getting that response back within 24 hours. Any effective testing system has to get at least 90 per cent of its results back within 24 hours. If it fails to do that, then we're really missing the goal of achieving that best effect from the testing regime.

I appreciate that my five minutes are nearly up on the clock. TTP: the scale of test, track and protect is enormous, as the report highlights, and the BMA's evidence in particular spoke of this enormous programme that will be required from between 7,500 to 8,000 contacts in a day, up to 0.5 million people at any one time being in the system. That gives a sense of the scale of operation that we're talking about, and if at the start of this year people said to politicians, 'What do you think are going to be your top-five challenges?', I don't think anyone would have touched on a COVID outbreak and the all-encapsulating nature of it.

So, I do commend the report to the public at large and I do commend the activity of the committee in undertaking this report, and I look forward to continuing the work of the committee when it revisits some of the recommendations to see that they've been implemented in the future. Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer.