Emergency Question: COVID-19 Restrictions

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 1:54 pm on 16 December 2020.

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Photo of Mark Drakeford Mark Drakeford Labour 1:54, 16 December 2020

Mike Hedges makes a very important point, which I'm very keen to reinforce. Of course we are not in a period where large numbers of people coming together to mix in any circumstances ought to be contemplated with anybody prepared to take their responsibilities seriously. And in a workplace setting, not only will there be individuals who ought to take that responsibility, but there will be people in charge of those settings bound by the regulations we have here in Wales that, in the workplace, all necessary measures must be taken to protect against the danger that coronavirus provides. So, let me be clear: it would be entirely against those regulations, and entirely in breach of the responsibility of those people who are in charge of office settings, if office parties of the sort that Mike Hedges described were to take place. In other settings, in hospitality settings, then of course the restrictions we have already put in place would deal with that, because no more than four people are able to come together in such settings from four different households. So, I do hope that nobody thinks that this is an opportunity to try to stretch, bend or break those rules, and that no setting thinks that this is the moment in which they should connive in that sort of activity. The position in Wales is far beyond the point where anybody should believe that that would be something sane or defensible to do.