Emergency Question: COVID-19 Restrictions

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 1:35 pm on 16 December 2020.

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Photo of Mark Drakeford Mark Drakeford Labour 1:35, 16 December 2020

Llywydd, I thank the leader of the opposition both for his understanding of the conditions that have led to today's announcement and for the detailed questions that he has posed. It is our intention that these will be all-Wales restrictions, despite the fact that there is variation in the level of coronvirus in different parts of Wales. Coronavirus is rising in every part of our country, and we have an obligation to take the action that will protect all parts of our country, and that is why we will do this on an all-Wales basis. But, as Paul Davies acknowledged, the document published on Monday sets out a path through which, if some parts of Wales in a reliable and sustainable way demonstrated that they were in a different part of the spectrum to other parts of Wales, that can be recognised through different levels of restriction. We are not in that position here today. But I've given a commitment today that we will review the level 3, level 4 restrictions three weeks after they are introduced, and that will give us an opportunity to see whether that reliable, sustainable differentiation has been achieved. 

On travel arrangements, the travel arrangements for the five days of the Christmas period are not changing. The advice to people will be strengthened today in the joint statement that we will publish from all four Governments, urging people only to travel where necessary, and particularly not to travel from high-incidence to low-incidence areas, and I very much endorse that advice, which will be set out later in the afternoon.

As for funding, we will provide a further enhanced level of funding beyond the £340 million we have already announced. We will make details of that available before the end of this week. We will look to use, as much as possible, established means of getting help from the Welsh Government to the businesses who require it, because using established mechanisms means that we can do it most swiftly. And I reported to the Senedd yesterday that, in the package of measures originally announced when changes were made to hospitality, millions of pounds have already been put into the hands of businesses that are affected, and I'm very grateful indeed to our local authority colleagues for the help that they are providing in that. 

We rehearsed yesterday and the leader of the opposition made a number of important points about mental health, Llywydd. I won't repeat them here, other than to say that, in the balance of harm that lie behind all the decisions we make as a Government, the impact on people's mental health and well-being is always consciously part of the calculation that we make, and we go on doing that, and the services that we provide to help people with the impact of changes on their mental well-being will be there in the post-Christmas period.

There are discussions going on, of course, about the start of the next term of education. I discussed this matter myself with the education Minister yesterday, and she continues to be directly engaged with local education authorities, trade unions, parents and others. It remains a significant priority for the Welsh Government to make sure that children do not lose out on education, and that is how we will approach the start of the next school term.

Finally, to agree with what Paul Davies said about the importance of offering people some hope, even in these very difficult times, vaccination will continue as planned during the level 4 restriction period. We've had the first vaccination of care home residents happening in Wales today. Despite the very significant short-term challenges we face, the prospects into next year are different, and communicating that to our fellow citizens remains part of how we will help people to deal with the difficulties that we know are faced in individual lives by the circulation of the virus in Wales.