And therefore I call on the Minister for Health and Social Services to open the debate. Vaughan Gething.

Motion NDM7536 Rebecca Evans

To propose that the Senedd, in accordance with Standing Order 27.5:

1. Approves The Health Protection (Coronavirus Restrictions) (No. 5) (Wales) Regulations 2020 laid in the Table Office on 18 December 2020.

Motion NDM7534 Rebecca Evans

To propose that the Senedd, in accordance with Standing Order 27.5:

1. Approves The Health Protection (Coronavirus Restrictions) (No. 5) (Wales) (Amendment) Regulations 2020 laid in the Table Office on 21 December 2020.

Motion NDM7537 Rebecca Evans

To propose that the Senedd, in accordance with Standing Order 27.5:

1. Approves The Health Protection (Coronavirus Restrictions) (No. 5) (Wales) (Amendment) (No. 2) Regulations 2020 laid in the Table Office on 22 December 2020.

Motion NDM7535 Rebecca Evans

To propose that the Senedd, in accordance with Standing Order 27.5:

1. Approves The Health Protection (Coronavirus, South Africa) (Wales) Regulations 2020 laid in the Table Office on 29 December 2020.

Motions moved.

Thank you, Llywydd. I move the motions before us to approve these sets of regulations before us today. I'll address each of the regulations in turn, starting with the Health Protection (Coronavirus Restrictions) (No. 5) (Wales) Regulations 2020.

On 14 December, the Government published our updated coronavirus control plan. I was grateful to Members for their contributions to the debate held in relation to the control plan on the next day. These regulations give effect to the framework of alert levels that it contains. The plan sets out four alert levels, which are aligned to the level of risk, and outline the measures needed at each level to control the spread of the virus and to protect people's health. This plan and regulations give people and businesses more clarity about how we move through the alert levels, and should help all of us to plan as we move through this new year. We've drawn on the expertise of the UK Scientific Advisory Group on Emergencies, SAGE, and our own technical advisory group to identify interventions that work and what we've learned from the pandemic. Of course, we should all reflect on the fact that we're still learning throughout this pandemic, even after the last 10 months.

Our technical advisory group here in Wales has made it very clear that a national approach to restrictions is much more likely to be understood by the wider public and, crucially, to be effective. But if there is clear evidence of a sustained variation between parts of Wales, the regulations allow for the alert levels to be applied regionally.

The second set of regulations considered today are an amendment to those regulations, the Health Protection (Coronavirus Restrictions) (No. 5) (Wales) (Amendment) Regulations 2020. Members will be aware that, on 19 December, new and worrying information about the new and highly infectious Kent variant strain of COVID was discussed by the First Minister, together with the First Ministers of Scotland and Northern Ireland and Michael Gove for the UK Government. In response here in Wales we took immediate action to introduce the alert level 4 restrictions, the highest of our level of restrictions, that night. These restrictions were originally scheduled to come into force over the Christmas period. This meant that non-essential retail, close-contact services, gyms, leisure centres, hospitality and accommodation were closed, and the stay-at-home restrictions came into effect.

Now, I recognise that these national measures were the subject of significant criticism from some quarters. Sadly, a brief period of time has reinforced why our national approach was the right approach, especially so for north Wales, where we introduced protection at the right time, or the position we now see across the north of our country would undoubtedly have been significantly worse. In addition, we made further changes to the Christmas arrangements, which allowed two households to come together to form a Christmas bubble, and they applied to Christmas Day only.

A further set of amendment regulations was made on 22 December—the Health Protection (Coronavirus Restrictions) (No. 5) (Wales) (Amendment) (No. 2) Regulations 2020. This largely technical amendment sought to ensure that selling alcohol after 10 p.m. remains an offence.

Finally, the Welsh Government has made further changes to the Health Protection (Coronavirus) (International Travel) (Wales) Regulations 2020. A new variant of COVID-19 has been detected in South Africa that is different to the UK variant of concern, the Kent variant, but may share similar properties in terms of higher transmissibility. That certainly appears to be the case. Since 24 December, all travellers arriving into Wales from South Africa are now required to isolate for 10 days and will only be able to leave isolation in very limited circumstances, and there are no sectoral exemptions. Although most visitors from South Africa arrive via England, further restrictions mean that passenger planes and ships directly from South Africa and accompanied freight are no longer able to land or dock at Welsh ports.

As I've set out earlier today, Wales is undertaking a large-scale vaccination process as quickly as possible. This is, however, a marathon effort of unprecedented scale. The situation remains very serious in every part of our country. I'm fully aware of the significant challenges that alert level 4 restrictions place on people and businesses across Wales. As the review of those restrictions last week identified, it is still far too soon to move to a lower alert level. We must remain in alert level 4 to protect our NHS and to save lives. I urge Members to support these regulations, which are essential if we are all to continue playing our part to keep Wales safe. Thank you, Llywydd. 

The Deputy Presiding Officer took the Chair.

Thank you. Can I now call Mick Antoniw as Chair of the Legislation, Justice and Constitution Committee? Mick Antoniw. 

Thank you, Dirprwy Llywydd, and I make this report again in respect of items 6, 7, 8 and 9. The coronavirus restrictions No. 5 regulations, as the Minister has reported, impose a number of restrictions and requirements in response to the risk to the public health arising from coronavirus, restrictions that will now be familiar to Members. Since being made, the No. 5 regulations have already been amended and the relevant amending regulations also feature in today's debate. Members will know that, originally, the No. 5 regulations were due to come into effect, as has been said, on 21 December, but, by virtue of the amending regulations, they, in fact, came into force on 20 December 2020, for the reasons that the Member has outlined. And Members will also know that they will expire at the end of the day on 31 March.

Now, as the Minister has said, the No. 5 regulations apply four alert levels, and differing restrictions apply within each alert level. Our reports on the No. 5 regulations and the two sets of amending regulations raise familiar merit points, namely the Welsh Government's justification for any potential interference with human rights, which obviously the committee considers very carefully; the issue of there being no formal consultation, but, again, for reasons that have been previously outlined; and that a regulatory impact assessment has not been carried out—again, for similar reasons. We also noted that the scientific evidence has been drawn on to assess public health risks in the making of the regulations. Furthermore, we have also highlighted the fact that both sets of amending regulations came into force before being laid before the Senedd. Now, on the first set of regulations amending the No. 5 regulations, we identified a drafting error. As the Welsh Government has noted in its response, received yesterday, the relevant provisions of the No. 5 regulations are now spent, having been revoked by the Health Protection (Coronavirus, International Travel and Restrictions) (Amendment) (Wales) Regulations 2021, which were made on 8 January 2021.

If I turn now to the Health Protection (Coronavirus, South Africa) (Wales) Regulations 2020, which amend both the international travel regulations under the No. 5 regulations, they make changes necessitated by the emerging health risks reported from South Africa that the Minister has reported on with regard to the new strain of coronavirus and, again, as he's reported, the high levels of transmissibility. We identified four technical reporting points relating to drafting errors and inconsistencies between the English and Welsh texts. The Welsh Government has noted these and will make corrections as necessary. Four merits points on these regulations again highlight the common and familiar issues that we consider: the interference with human rights, the absence of formal consultation, and the lack of a regulatory impact assessment, for, again, the reasons that have been identified, which we are familiar with. And again, in addition, these regulations came into force before they were laid. Diolch, Dirprwy Lywydd.

Thank you. Andrew R.T. Davies. 

[Inaudible.]—I'll deal with them in individual sequence. The Welsh Conservatives will be voting in support of the regulations as tabled this afternoon. On agenda item 6, and in particular trying to elicit from you some information as to how we might get into a position where these restrictions might slowly start to be alleviated, have you gateways that you as Ministers and as a Government can put out in the public today to show what progress we need to be making to move down the tier system that agenda item 6 covers? I appreciate, as we look at hospital numbers and case numbers, that looks a pretty long way away at the moment, but I think it's important that people understand, given, in previous restrictions that were put in place, there was a clear road map out of those restrictions. At the moment, that doesn't seem evident. 

Can you also comment on reports today—? The vaccine plan that you tabled is an important way of assisting in suppressing the virus in our communities across the whole of Wales, but I noticed today that there are reports circulating of vaccine passports and trials being undertaken by Governments in other parts of the United Kingdom. Will the vaccine passports form part of any package that will be required to unpick some of these restrictions and lower the levels of alertness around Wales, and have you as a Government got a position on vaccine passports? And, importantly, on the mutation that is going on at the moment with the virus, we have seen how this has impacted on numbers across the whole of Wales and indeed across the whole of the United Kingdom. Can you confirm today that all labs that undertake testing for coronavirus are testing for the mutation, so that we can keep track of how the mutation is spreading across Wales, and, indeed, protection against future mutations of the virus, in lab testing?

Agenda item 7 is around the arrangements around Christmas Day, and obviously, as we all understand, Christmas Day has been and gone. I think people looking in on our proceedings will find it slightly bizarre that we're voting on these regulations now, but it is what it is. Agenda item 8 around alcohol restrictions—we will be supporting this measure. And agenda item 9 is in relation to the South Africa travel restrictions. Again, we will be supporting the restrictions that were placed on the South African inbound travel. Have you any information that could be provided to the Parliament today in relation to maybe other mutations in other countries that might require similar travel restrictions, because obviously I presume there's sharing of information, and, in particular, when the Danish outbreak happened, there was close dialogue, you indicated to Parliament, between your officials and the Government in Denmark? Are there concerns flashing on the dashboard at the moment in other countries where we can see mutations of the virus occurring that might involve bringing forward greater restrictions on travel coming in from those countries? Thank you, Minister.

I want to keep my comments relatively brief. I will refer briefly to agenda items 7, 8 and 9. First of all, item 7 is the regulations on the change of the date of introduction of restrictions in December. The second relates to the sale of alcohol after 10 p.m., and a change to regulations in terms of travel from South Africa is covered in item 9. I have no comments to make on those, if truth be told. They are sensible and we will be supporting them.

We will also be supporting the main regulations before us today under item 6, the Health Protection (Coronavirus Restrictions) (No. 5) (Wales) Regulations 2020. These are the regulations, as the explanatory memorandum notes, that note the restrictions and what applies under the four tiers, namely the introduction of that new four-tier system, and the context we have is the current restrictions, which are level 4 restrictions, which we currently have in place for the whole of Wales.

I am entirely comfortable, given where we are today, that that is quite right and that we should all be living under the level 4 restrictions. We are all very vulnerable at the moment. That is most apparent in the east of Wales, in the south-east and the north-east, but every part of Wales is experiencing a level of cases where strict action is required. And I would make the point here again to the Minister that this isn't a north/south pattern that the pandemic has followed; it's an east/west pattern. Referring, time and time again, to 'north Wales' as if it were one homogenous region—that's not particularly useful. The challenges in the north-east and the north-west can be markedly different in terms of this pandemic, as is the case in the south-west and the south-east. But, as I say, the risks that we're currently facing are being experienced across Wales at the moment, despite ongoing differences in levels.

But I will urge the Government, once again, when it comes time, hopefully, to be able to start considering relaxing restrictions, to use the powers within these regulations, and, as the First Minister himself as said that he's willing to do, to operate by varying the support that needs to be provided to different areas. The regulations are quite right as they are. We will vote in favour of them. It's how they're implemented that's important here, and, as we look to the future, hopefully to better days in terms of case numbers, we need to ensure that we can introduce greater freedoms for people for their own physical and mental well-being, and for businesses as soon as possible. And perhaps we won't be able to do that for everyone at the moment; perhaps the east may be facing a more grave situation in a month or two—who knows?

May I also ask, given that the regulations relate to restrictions on all kinds of activities, about the outdoors and outdoor activities? There are substantial restrictions on people's ability to participate in outdoor activities, which are relatively safe. There are people contacting me saying, 'Well, why can't we play golf?', 'Why can't we go on a brief journey in order to undertake outdoor exercise for well-being?' And in other parts of the UK, people from different households can spend time exercising together in the open air, and it's important to make that point, and again that's very good in terms of individual well-being. So, even given these very challenging circumstances in terms of the number of cases that we currently have, to what extent is the Government still looking carefully at what else could be allowed in a way that is responsible and safe? I'm not asking for great relaxations here given our situation, but you should be looking constantly at whether there is more that could be done in order to provide people with greater opportunities to look after their own well-being and so on. Thank you very much.

I have no Members who've indicated for an intervention, therefore, I call the Minister for Health and Social Services to reply to the debate. Vaughan Gething.

Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. I thank the Chair of the Legislation, Justice and Constitution Committee for his report on both the merits and technical scrutiny. It is always an important function to make sure that the law is as consistent as possible, and even where we don't agree, it is certainly, I think, a continually important function to make sure that the law is in good shape.

Turning to the Conservative health spokesperson, I'm pleased to have support for the regulations indicated, and the challenge about how we use the latitudes that the alert levels give us about the path to potentially stepping down in the future, well, there are some metrics within the alert levels in the plan that I know the Member will have looked at. We also, though, have to have a broader understanding of the system pressures that we face and of the movement that we see. That's why we are looking for a sustained improvement before looking to come out of alert level 4, either across the whole country or potentially, as I and the First Minister have indicated, within regions of the country as well.

Now, that can't be neatly described on a piece of paper in the way that some of the metrics in the plan can be. But we do know that, at present, it's unfortunately the case that our critical care units are operating at over 150 per cent across Wales. We know that we have a record number of people occupying hospital beds at this point in time. We know that we have field hospitals open in different parts of Wales. We know that we have a real challenge in getting recovering patients out of acute beds, and that is partly because, in significant part, we've got very real pressure in our social care system. So, without seeing a recovery in terms of staff in social care and our ability to put people into different parts of the system where they can be cared for appropriately, we have that whole-system pressure that colleagues within primary care will see in their day-to-day activity as well. And that is less easy to describe in the sort of metrics that we already have in the plan.

But, as we're going through each of the regular reviews that we undertake—I think this goes into some of the points that Rhun ap Iorwerth was making—we have regular advice from our chief medical officer, our scientific adviser and the technical advisory group, and I think it's a good thing that we're used to a regular pattern now of publishing the advice of the chief medical officer, alongside any choices that Ministers make in terms of the restrictions that are in place. So, I hope that will give the Member and others who are watching some assurance. It isn't simply a matter of Ministers choosing on a whim to do things; it is informed by direct evidence. It's also informed by the best available public health advice that we have and we'll continue to be transparent about that.

On the Member's point about vaccine passports, this is a matter of media briefing rather than policy. There's been no serious discussion at all. In fact, I haven't had a single discussion with health Ministers in other parts of the UK about vaccine passports. These matters are often floated before there is a serious discussion and it's not a serious matter for now. There may be something akin to that, particularly for international travel. I can foresee a time in the future when it's not just the policy choices that are being made across the UK to have pre-travel tests undertaken, but the potential for vaccination in the way that some of us are used to needing a vaccine stamp to travel to other parts of the world is part of what we're used to.

On your question, again, about lighthouse labs testing for the Kent variant within the UK, these are lighthouse labs that test for it. There are only a handful of those within the UK. Public Health Wales, as I said, is working with colleagues in England to have a more representative sample from south Wales sent through. We have a good understanding in north Wales.

As I'm sure the Member will have seen in the technical advisory group report that was published alongside our schools choices, we have provided a map of where the new variant has already seeded and is understood in Wales. The map in north Wales is more comprehensive than the one in the south, but the overall picture shows that it is seeded everywhere. However, all of the new variants, including the variants of concern, still show up positive in the positive coronavirus testing. So, people can have the assurance that, if they get a positive test, even if it is a new variant of concern, they will get an accurate positive test.

I know that the Member was unable to attend the committee briefing today with myself, the chief medical officer and the chief scientific adviser on health. But, again, we have had the indication that there are thousands of variations of coronavirus that are already identified. That, in many ways, isn't really an issue. As the deputy chief medical officer said in public, every virus mutates and changes and has variations.

The issue is where there are variations of concern and the reasons for that. Just as we did with the Danish mink variation, just as we have with the South African variation, just as we have with the Kent variant, these are variants of concern because there are particular properties. Prompt action in Denmark appears to have avoided the harm that the Danish mink variation could have caused in retransmission into humans, where it might have affected the efficacy of vaccines. That's a good thing. We all work together, not just within the UK but across Europe, to share information.

When it comes to Kent and the South African variants, the higher transmissibility is driving, certainly, the Kent variant spreading across the UK. There are much higher rates of hospitalisation in every UK nation, which is why Chris Whitty said at the start of this week that these are the most difficult days for the national health service within the course of the pandemic. As variants of concern are identified, information is shared promptly between officials and between chief medical officers. Indeed, there are proper and grown-up conversations between the health Ministers of all four parts of the UK, regardless of our differing political parties.

I'm pleased to have the broad support of Rhun ap Iorwerth and Plaid Cymru for the regulations as well. Again, the regional approach for the future: it really is for the future. We are not there yet, and it will take significant improvement to have a realistic prospect of moving out of level 4 at the end of this month. But, we take on board the point that, if there is that significant regional variation that is sustained, then we may be able to make different choices within different parts of Wales.

I recognise the points that he has made about whether exercise should be permitted if people are driving or travelling a bit further afield for exercise. But, just to reiterate, to be fair, the Member has attended all—or nearly all—of the briefings that we have provided with myself and the CMO to the Health, Social Care and Sport Committee members. In those, there's the opportunity to ask questions about where we are and about the advice that is given about the nature of the public health threat, and about whether there is something to be achieved in changing parts of the regulations or the regime that we have had.

The reason that we have a 'stay at home' requirement—not guidance, but a requirement at present—is because of the level of seriousness that we have. That will remain the case for the foreseeable future, and as we are able to make different choices—. You will recall that, coming out of the spring lockdown, we were able to make some different choices about people's ability to move from 'stay at home' to 'stay local'. We are not in a position to move to 'stay local' at this point in time, so it's really important that there is a very clear message from the Government and, indeed, all Members from all political backgrounds, that the rules require us to stay at home.

Exercise should start and end at your home whether you are on foot or on a bicycle. So, that's the requirement. When we have different choices available to us, I would be keen for us to be able to do so, because that would signal that we are in a different position again with the course of the pandemic and the protection that we can provide, with a different set of ways to all play our part in helping to keep Wales safe. Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer.

Thank you. The proposal is to agree the motion under item 6. Does any Member object? [Objection.] I see an objection. Therefore, we will defer voting on that item until voting time.

Voting deferred until voting time.

The proposal is to agree the motion under item 7. Does any Member object? [Objection.] I see an objection. Therefore, we defer voting under that item until voting time.

Voting deferred until voting time.

The proposal is to agree the motion under agenda item 8. Does any Member object? [Objection.] I see an objection. Therefore, we will defer until voting time.

Voting deferred until voting time.

Then the proposal is to agree the motion under item 9. Does any Member object? No. Therefore, in accordance with Standing Order 12.36, the motion under item 9 is agreed.

Motion agreed in accordance with Standing Order 12.36.