Questions Without Notice from the Party Leaders

Part of 1. Questions to the First Minister – in the Senedd at 1:43 pm on 24 November 2020.

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Photo of Mark Drakeford Mark Drakeford Labour 1:43, 24 November 2020

Well, Llywydd, I thank Adam Price for that, and I think he put it very well, that, while, for many people, having an opportunity to meet with family and friends over the festive period is very important, we have to balance so many things in allowing that to happen. Now, there will be a COBRA meeting later this afternoon, which will be the latest coming together of the four nations of the United Kingdom, to fashion a common approach to Christmas, and I'm very hopeful that we will be able to make further progress on that this afternoon. The modelling that we have available to us there comes through SAGE. 

When we met on Saturday, we specifically asked the four chief medical officers to meet between the Saturday meeting and the meeting later today to give us further advice on a number of aspects of potential easing over Christmas that we rehearsed in the Saturday meeting, and that will be available to us this afternoon. But, I agree with the point that Adam Price made that, whatever additional freedom we are able to offer over the Christmas period will have to be used responsibly by people. The fact that a relaxation is possible is not an instruction to go and spend the whole of that period doing risky things, and the leader of Plaid Cymru asked what the impact of any relaxation over Christmas would be, and while I don't have a quantifiable answer to that at the moment, the general answer is very clear: it will lead to more spreading of coronavirus, because coronavirus thrives when people get together, and the more people get together, the more coronavirus there will be. It's why, Llywydd, I have been arguing in the meetings we have had for a focus not just on a small number of days at Christmas itself, but on decisions we need to take in the lead-up to Christmas, and how we will deal with the aftermath, and to try to do that on a broadly common basis as well. 

On the information campaign—the final question—the Welsh Government has an information campaign planned. It will do many of the things that Adam Price mentioned in trying to drive home to people the consequences of people's behaviour, and the ways in which, by doing the right things, we can all make a contribution to having a Christmas that we can enjoy without running those undue risks.