6. The Health Protection (Coronavirus, International Travel and Restrictions) (Amendment) (Wales) Regulations 2021

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 5:32 pm on 19 January 2021.

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Photo of Vaughan Gething Vaughan Gething Labour 5:32, 19 January 2021

Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. Again, I thank the legislation and justice committee for their scrutiny. It does help us to make sure that our regulations are consistent, and we pick up potential drafting errors that do get picked up by the committee, so, again, I'm grateful to them for the job they continue to do to make sure that legislation is fit for purpose.

On the comments from the opposition spokesperson, the Conservative health spokesperson, I would make it plain and clear we have a regular weekly meeting between the four Governments in the UK to review travel matters. Within those regular meetings, we consider changes to the environment, to case rates in other parts of the world. That's where we lead to case rates in general being updated, and, to be fair, most of the time those are no longer controversial choices, and, most of the time, the four Governments are moving at the same pace.

Brazil is a different case in point, though, because that came from the evidence of a new strain, a strain of concern, because, as you'll have heard from the deputy chief medical officer and others on a repeated number of occasions, every virus mutates and changes. It's part of the reason why we have to have a seasonal flu campaign, because there are different strains of the flu that circulate each year that can potentially cause different levels of harm. Most of the new variants that arise are not variants of concern. What does happen is when one, as the Kent variant does, has higher levels of transmission, that's a variant of concern, because it changes the behaviour in a way that gives it a competitive advantage and potentially means that it will cause more harm. We've seen that in the South African transmission. We are always concerned about other variations that take place.

We're informed in Wales by our links with other colleagues in Public Health England, as indeed are other parts of the UK, for their international surveillance work and the work that is generally done both in the UK and further afield on genomic sequencing and understanding of variants of concern. I hope that across this Chamber there'll be some real pride in Wales's role in understanding and contributing to genomic sequencing. We punch well above our weight, not just internationally, but within the UK as well, for the amount we're doing to understand those different strains of the virus. So, that's partly about the work that we do ourselves, partly about the work we do with other parts of the UK and internationally. And I hope that Members are reassured about the fact that that information is shared openly and transparently between all public health agencies within the UK, all of our chief medical officers and scientific advisers, and, indeed, Ministers, when it comes to decision making. That's why the choices that we're making today are ones that are consistently made in other parts of the UK as well, and it's why, when we do come to debate the new impositions that were put in at pace in terms of Brazil and similar countries, you'll find that other parts of the UK have moved at a similar pace and time frame. I hope that answers the Member's questions and provides people with the assurance that I know they'll look for. Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer.