5. What assessment has the Minister made of any gaps between the supply of vaccines and the capacity to deploy those vaccinations in Wales? OQ56124

8. Will the Minister make a statement on the pace of vaccine roll-out in Wales? OQ56138

Thank you. And, Presiding Officer, I understand you've given your permission for questions 5 and 8 to be grouped. All health boards are geared up for significant expansion of capacity in January, with the coming onstream of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine. Our plans are dependent on Wales receiving vaccine supplies in fair proportion and in good time. Supply is outside of our control, but the UK vaccines Minister has further reconfirmed his indications previously that vaccine supply to Wales will be delivered on time and in that fair proportion.

Thank you, Minister, and that assurance is good to hear, because we have, of course, heard separate stories over the last few days of some supply chain and production challenges, and we should anticipate that there will be glitches as we go along; it's not going to be perfect. Firstly, we heard of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine challenges, because one of the four batches of the vaccine over the weekend produced for Wales was delayed. And then we heard, of course, of six EU health Ministers putting in writing to the European Commission their severe concerns about delivery delays on the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine. So, can you tell the Senedd whether these sorts of challenges that will happen from time to time with the supply chain and manufacture will impact on the safe and rapid deployment of the vaccines in Wales and across the UK, or whether the planning that you've got in place can mitigate these problems in the vaccine supply and manufacture?

I think it's a fair question, and I thank the Member for the way he's put the question as well, because it's important we don't stoke people's fears, in terms of the roll-out. I think Pfizer-BioNTech themselves have made a public statement that they're reassessing their own manufacturing process and there'll be a brief pause before they then have a more robust manufacturing process for the increased volume of their vaccine they are producing in Belgium. So, we may see a slight reduction for a period of time in the Pfizer vaccines coming into the UK, but the manufacturers have been clear that they think they'll then have an increased and more robust supply coming into us.

And with the AstraZeneca supply, it's easier in terms of supply chain, because some of it has been manufactured in Germany, but we expect the delivery unit in Wrexham to be delivering more and more of the UK's supply. But we do then understand the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency quite rightly undertake batch testing to make sure that batches are properly tested and assured before they're released into the system. So, we've seen a pause in that, a delay in one of the batches. We can expect that; we can also expect that to be smoothed out over time, as AstraZeneca have committed to provide significantly increased amounts of that vaccine to all nations in the UK. And it is important. With relatively complex supply and delivery chains, there may be some bumps. If those are material, then I will report those openly, and what it means in terms of vaccine supply. I'll be clear about whether that pauses or moves backwards any of the milestones we have. But what I can say is that, as soon as we get vaccine that our health service can use and deliver, it'll be supplied to go to people as quickly as possible. I'd ask the public to bear with our NHS. No-one will be left behind; people won't be forgotten. Working all together, I'm confident we can do something that Wales can be really proud of with our NHS-led vaccination programme.

Minister, may I associate myself and my party with your remarks about the safety and efficacy of the vaccine? I—and, I think, all of us—would encourage people to take the vaccine as soon as it is offered to them. May I ask you: following the First Minister saying he'd clarified his remarks, could you clarify—has he actually retracted his statement that we should make the Pfizer vaccine last until the next delivery is scheduled, or his statement that the reason for that is to avoid any risk of vaccinators being left standing around with nothing to do?

The First Minister has clarified his position on several occasions, and I answered not just questions in the media, but about 20 minutes' worth of the emergency question yesterday. I recognise there's a lot of public interest in this.

But has he retracted? You haven't answered.

I don't think I can be any clearer about the actual position—that the vaccine isn't being held back, it's being delivered to our NHS as quickly as the NHS can deliver itself, and our infrastructure has increased significantly to allow even more of those supplies to go out, and we'll carry on doing so. And I should say that we're in the same position as other UK nations in having a store of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine that is being stored in significant storage facilities to then be delivered as quickly as all nations can have it. So, the Pfizer vaccine delivered today in England, Scotland and Northern Ireland is from a delivery they will already have had, just as it is here in Wales, and it's about the capacity of each of our delivery systems to be able to deliver that into the arms of the public. And I look forward to figures for the end of this week to see the significant increase that I fully expect in the delivery both of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine and the AstraZeneca one, and I look forward to people across the Chamber welcoming and celebrating the success of our NHS in doing so.

Well, the gap between the supply of vaccines and the capacity to deploy those vaccinations in Wales is causing particular concern when it comes to police officers. Responding to you last week, I referred to calls by the North Wales Police Federation for policing to be considered for some—not full, but some—priority on the COVID-19 vaccination programme. Many current and former North Wales Police officers have written to me since stating that, 'Every single day, police officers and staff run the risk of coming into contact with a person with COVID, contracting it themselves and then bringing the killer virus back into their own homes', and asking for the Welsh Government to commit to giving policing some priority. And on Monday, the North Wales Police Federation told me they were contacted last weekend by, quote, 'Very reliable sources working within the vaccination centres', who advised that hospital secretaries and even social workers working from home are receiving the vaccine, yet front-line policing is still not considered to be a risk, or even being allowed to use up any spare or unused vaccines. How do you therefore respond to their specific statement that even getting front-line police officers on a stand-by list, like is happening in some parts of England, might be a start?

Well, I think I should go back to some of the points I rehearsed with both Delyth Jewell and others on the prioritisation list. The independent, expert JCVI have given us advice on how to make best use of the vaccines that we have available; chief medical officers have endorsed that advice, because it will help to save as many lives as possible. The current priority list one to nine that the JCVI have recommended—and every Government, including your Conservative colleagues in England, has followed that prioritisation, because it should mean that 99 per cent of the hospitalisations and deaths that take place will be covered within those first nine priority groups. The JCVI will be considering advice to give to chief medical officers and Ministers like myself in all four Governments on the next phase of the vaccination that is to come. And I'm looking forward to receiving that advice and an understanding if they'll give advice on occupational risk groups for that second vaccination stage—whether people are teachers, police officers, taxi drivers or bus drivers, people need to consider the risk to different occupations of the harm that can be caused by COVID. When I get that advice, I'll then make a decision. I'll be open and transparent about what it is, but you can rely on the fact that my choice will be about the public health case, to save the greatest number of lives as quickly as possible.