3. Statement by the First Minister: Health Protection Measures Post Firebreak

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 3:49 pm on 3 November 2020.

Alert me about debates like this

Photo of Mark Drakeford Mark Drakeford Labour 3:49, 3 November 2020

Llywydd, thank you, and I thank Mick Antoniw for those questions. I know that Mick Antoniw began with a slightly jocular remark, but, actually, Llywydd, we do, all of us, I think shy away a bit from saying much about the impact of coronavirus in our own lives and in the lives of the staff that we all employ in our own constituency capacities, and who I know have borne an enormous burden of the efforts we all of us try to make in our local capacities to answer people's questions, keep them well informed. But there is a mental health and well-being toll in all of that that elected representatives in our constituency roles, with our teams there, also experience. So, I've always thought, Llywydd, that one of the fantastic things about devolution in Wales is that the gap between those people who are elected and those people who elect us is much narrower than it is in many other legislatures, and that we live lives that are as full of the experiences that our fellow citizens have to experience as anybody else, and I think it does bring a different sort of richness to the type of discussion that we've been having this afternoon.

On the Health and Safety Executive and trade unions, we, of course—Mick Antoniw will know—have a new national health and safety forum in Wales until the time when the HSE is devolved. I'm very grateful to it for agreeing to participate in that forum and making sure that staff are available to contribute to those discussions, including the discussions of the health and well-being of people working from home. I'm certain that I am not the only person who, at the end of many days, suffers from Zoom fatigue, and I don't just mean that in terms of just the toll it takes on you, but just literally, where your eyes are burning and you feel you've stared at that screen for longer than is sensible for any one individual to do. And that is experienced by other people working from home. That's why the health and safety forum will take an interest in it; that's why we're accelerating our programme of local hubs, where people will be able to work remotely, but not within their own homes.

And the point on gambling addiction, which Mike Antoniw has made very regularly throughout the whole of the time he's been an Assembly Member, will have been heard by Eluned Morgan, and I'm sure that she will be happy to have a direct discussion with him on the particular impact of the coronavirus crisis on people who are at home and bombarded, as he said, by invitations and adverts trying to induce them, sometimes vulnerable people, to spend money in that way.