Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 5:36 pm on 6 October 2020.
Thank you, acting Presiding Officer. I'll run through the comments as they've been made in the debate. I note the comments that the Chair of the committee, Mick Antoniw, made. We do provide frequently asked questions and guidance to try to assist people with the requirements of the regulations and how to help people to follow the new rules.
And, of course, the requirements are because of the continued spread of the coronavirus and all the harm that it will cause and is already causing. Yesterday, I set out that hospital admissions have more than doubled over the last week or so. I'm afraid that I expect to see the death total increase as well. The action we are taking is to avoid very real harm being caused across the whole country, and the frequently asked questions are to help people to follow those rules to keep themselves, their families and their communities safe.
I'd welcome engagement with the committee around information in the explanatory memorandum. It's supposed to be helpful. If there's a way to have that conversation with the committee then I'd be very happy to do so. I also welcome the fact that the committee has, from time to time, helped us with consistency in legislative provisions. That's part of the point of the scrutiny. We're making these regulations in a rapid manner because of the fast-changing picture with coronavirus, and I think there's value in having the committee undertaking its scrutiny function before the legislature is then able to exercise its function in determining whether these regulations can continue or not. But, that's a choice for how the legislature wishes to operate its business.
I'll deal with Joyce Watson, Rhun ap Iorwerth and then Huw Irranca before I turn to the group of comments from Andrew R.T. Davies, Darren Millar and Mark Reckless. I think Joyce Watson is right: the regulations we have do rely on public trust and support and faith that we are doing this for the right reasons, that there is a proper basis for doing so. That's partly about the evidence we have in hard data, it's also about the wider community intelligence we have over the spread and the re-emergence with a vengeance of coronavirus. I think she's right, in all of the opinion poll evidence we see, there is broad public support for the approach the Welsh Government is taking to keep Wales safe.
On introducing restrictions, there is a 14-day period to then review them, then at least every seven days we have to review them again, and that means there is a regular period to review the position within each area with local restrictions in place and for us to consider the path out of those. And I am keen to see areas move out of restrictions. It is not an easy or a glib thing to introduce restrictions on how people live their lives at all.
In terms of the health board data and the intelligence on the spread that's being undertaken, and this is a point raised by other speakers, I am keen that we do provide a regular amount of information about what takes place on a more localised level. I want to be able to do that in a way that doesn't potentially highlight individuals. In some areas, the prevalence will be so low that highlighting an individual case could potentially identify that person. But I think that that is something that we should be able to resolve and I'm keen to do so. I think it would help to deal with some of the concerns that other Members have raised.