Emergency Question: COVID-19 Restrictions

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 1:59 pm on 16 December 2020.

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Photo of Mark Drakeford Mark Drakeford Labour 1:59, 16 December 2020

Can I thank Joyce Watson for what she has said? One of the prime reasons why the Cabinet decided to bring forward this announcement to today was to make sure that people who work at the front line of our health and social care services knew that their Government was taking action on their behalf. We have been assessing this over a number of days, so we know that we were preparing for this moment, but there is no reason why they should know that, and that sense of relief that Joyce Watson referred to I think will be shared by those people who now know that actions are being taken in Wales, that we are not shying away from them, that we will not do what is sometimes the easy thing in avoiding the difficult messages Governments have to share.

So, I think we will be reinforcing the best instincts of people in Wales, because most people in Wales want to do the right thing. They want to make their contribution. They want to know that their Government is providing the context that allows them to play their part in this great national effort, and the reason for making this decision and announcing it today was to attend to the views of our front-line workers, but to give our fellow citizens the time they need in order to make the preparation for the changes that they will now have to abide by.

That will undoubtedly place even greater pressure on those people who throughout this pandemic have turned up to work every day in our supermarkets, putting themselves in harm's way in order to make sure that the rest of us are able to go out and get the food we need, even at the point of the greatest restrictions on other parts of our lives. Let me say this afternoon, Llywydd: I look to the supermarkets themselves to make sure that they take every action to protect those spaces as places where public health needs to be observed, and to protect their staff in the work that they do.

I look to the supermarkets to make sure that they set maximum limits for the number of people who should be inside a supermarket at any one time; that they police that carefully at the front door, that when they have one-way systems in their stores that those one-way systems are there to be observed, not simply to be put on the floor; that they provide advice regularly to people over the tannoy so that people understand what is expected of them; that when people come to queue to leave the supermarket and to pay for their goods, that that is done in a way that respects the public health crisis we are in, and respects the workers who are there to help the rest of us.

So, I am absolutely happy to send that message that Joyce Watson asked me to. Those people go into work every day so that the rest of us are able to go and buy the things, those necessities of life, and their contribution should be celebrated and it should be respected as well.