The following amendment has been selected: amendment 1 in the name of Rebecca Evans. In accordance with Standing Order 12.23(iii), amendment 2 tabled to the motion was not selected.

Item 7 on our agenda this afternoon is the Welsh Conservatives debate on the supply and roll-out of COVID vaccines. I call on Angela Burns to move the motion.

Motion NDM7562 Darren Millar

To propose that the Senedd:

1. Welcomes the swift action taken by the UK Conservative Government in securing access to 367 million vaccine doses and ensuring the UK was the first country in the world to authorise a vaccine.

2. Recognises the significant supply of vaccines provided by the UK Conservative Government to all home nations.

3. Regrets the slow start to the COVID-19 vaccine roll-out in Wales.

4. Calls on the Welsh Government to implement a five-point plan to guarantee the success of the vaccination programme, which includes:

a) appointing a Welsh Government vaccines minister;

b) cutting red tape to enable pharmacies and retired or former health professionals to administer the vaccines;

c) setting clear targets and publishing detailed daily information to ensure the vaccination programme is on track in all parts of Wales;

d) mobilising a 'volunteer army' to support the Welsh NHS in the delivery of the vaccination programme; and

e) introducing 24/7 vaccinations at centres across the country.

Motion moved.

Good afternoon, Deputy Presiding Officer. I move the motion tabled in the name of Darren Millar and ask the Senedd to welcome the swift action taken by the UK Conservative Government in securing access to 367 million vaccine doses and ensuring the UK was the first country in the world to authorise a vaccine. We won't be supporting the Government amendment, given both the 'delete all' and the hubris on display yesterday. But we will support Neil McEvoy's amendment; indeed, I'm very interested to know whether the Welsh Government has turned down any vaccines, let alone the numbers Mr McEvoy cites.

Without doubt, the swift and detailed work done by the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency in approving the Pfizer and Oxford vaccines a month before European regulators has enabled the UK to lead on vaccine roll-out in Europe. However, it is now down to you, the Welsh Labour-led Government, to use all of the vaccines made available to you as quickly as possible, because without a vaccine our economy will be destroyed by an endless cycle of lockdown after lockdown. We already see businesses closing and people losing jobs.

Without a vaccine, the future learning of our children is at stake. Remote learning isn't working or possible for all, and exams are to be teacher assessed. We cannot continue to gamble with children and young people's futures. Without a vaccine, the Welsh NHS will continue to be crushed under the pressure of seriously ill COVID-19 patients, and we cannot allow waiting lists to spiral even further and non-COVID harms to escalate. Members, I feel the need to rehearse these arguments given the First Minister's comments, made several times, that he is spacing out the vaccines in order to ensure that vaccinators aren't standing around doing nothing—totally absurd comments met with anger by the public and in stark contrast to other nations. On the same day as the First Minister's comments, over-70s in England were already being invited for vaccination appointments.

I acknowledge the hard of work vaccinators up and down the country; to you all, I say a heartfelt 'thank you'. However, Minister, it is you I must call to account. Planning an effective vaccine roll-out was surely the mandate of the Wales COVID-19 vaccine delivery programme board. They've been in place since June last year, with the mandate of planning the vaccine roll-out. So, why were some health boards only recently formulating plans for mass vaccination centres or for mobile testing units? Why have GPs had to go through bureaucratic hoops to access the vaccines from the Welsh Government and PHE? Why are so many of the over-80s in the community worried sick that they have heard nothing? Why are some health boards leaping ahead and others falling back?

Yesterday, you refuted any notion of a postcode lottery, but that is exactly what is happening in parts of Wales. Minister, can you clarify what input the vaccines delivery board has had in bringing together Wales's response to the vaccine roll-out? How many times has it met since it was formed in June? What are its outcomes and performance measures? Minister, while it is welcome news that nearly 70 per cent of care home residents were vaccinated by the end of last week, your target for the over-80s has slipped substantially. What are the reasons for this? I don't believe it's just snow.

Last week, the First Minister claimed he had access to rolling data that showed that the over-80s target would be met. How? Regrettably, some people are queue jumping and back-room staff are being vaccinated ahead of priority groups; this is reported by a number of health boards. Minister, what efforts are you making to ensure that these reports are being thoroughly investigated and guidance offered? Some GPs have e-mailed to say that vaccinators are being told to bin excess vaccines. I understand the British Medical Association are aware, but what is the Welsh Government's policy about excess vaccines? Even a few instances of this are, in my view, morally and economically indefensible.

Minister, it is estimated that to reach the target of 740,350 people with a first dose by mid February, Wales needs to administer 22,358 vaccines a day. You've hit that target three times so far. How confident are you that all of the priority groups will receive the first dose by mid February? The Welsh Conservatives have a clear plan for speeding up the vaccine roll-out including a dedicated Minister, cutting the red tape preventing health professional from taking part, setting clear targets, enabling volunteers, and instigating 24/7 vaccination centres. Your plan does not seem clear, you're already missing targets, and I'm concerned as to your ability to be fleet of foot and pull this around. Therefore I commend this motion to the Senedd.

I have selected one amendment to the motion. In accordance with Standing Order 12.23, I have not selected amendment 2 that was tabled to the motion. Can I call on the Minister for Health and Social Services, Vaughan Gething, to move amendment 1, tabled in the name of Rebecca Evans? 

Amendment 1—Rebecca Evans

Delete all and replace with:

To propose that the Senedd:

1. Welcomes the swift action taken by the independent regulator, the MHRA, ensuring the UK was the first country in the world to authorise a vaccine.

2. Notes the action taken by the UK Government on behalf of the 4 nations to secure vaccine supplies.

3. Notes that roll-out across Wales and the rest of the UK is dependent on security of supply from the manufacturers.

4. Notes that delays in supply of OAZ have a direct impact on roll out in primary care.

5. Notes the Welsh Government strategy to deliver the following 3 key milestones:

a) by mid-February—all care home residents and staff; frontline health and social care staff; everyone over 70 and everyone who is clinically extremely vulnerable will have been offered vaccination;

b) by the spring—vaccination will have been offered to all the other phase one priority groups. This is everyone over 50 and everyone who is at-risk because they have an underlying health condition;

c) by the autumn—vaccination will have been offered to all other eligible adults in Wales, in line with any guidance issued by the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI).

Amendment 1 moved.

I formally move, Chair.

Minister, we are in a sprint to save lives and businesses and mental health. It is very welcome to hear today from the medical officer that the R rate has gone down and there is noticeable improvement in community transmission rates across our country. This is very encouraging. However, as we heard from Helen Whyley from the Royal College of Nursing on the BBC today, we cannot be complacent. The NHS is still under enormous pressure. So, we'll need to have a plan in place, not only for the new Kent variant of the vaccine that has spread across Wales, but also a plan in case further strains of the virus present themselves to us.

We must now concentrate on what we can control. We must ensure that the vaccine is rolled out at speed. Yes, it's great that we've caught up with Scotland and Northern Ireland, but we still, percentage wise, have a long way to go to catch up with England. Forty-four thousand vaccines need to be administered to reach that target—that's the size of Merthyr Tydfil. You can't be disingenuous and blame the snow for missing your target this week. The Government missed your own clear target that you gave of vaccinating 70 per cent of the over-80s. When are you going to reach that target? I have not heard you say when you're actually going to reach that target. We need to know that—not the blasé, 'We're going to reach everything by mid Feb.' We need to know clear targets.

We have a situation where couples are not being called to be vaccinated together, where carers are not being vaccinated at the same time as the person they're looking after. We have, for example, one mass vaccination centre in Monmouthshire delivering the Oxford vaccine only two days a week, whereas if it was moved to the Pfizer vaccine, it could be delivered seven days a week, like in Newport and Cwmbran. Simple practical steps are not happening. Our local health boards are doing their best, and I commend them for the work they've done—it's been fantastic—but these sorts of mini failures lie with you, Minister, and they have a massive impact on us getting the vaccine out as fast as possible.

The Government needs clear targets, it needs to publish more data on the roll-out, to be analysed not just by us but the general public, so that they can clearly what's going on. I run coronavirus help and support groups, and the information I put on there is the only information that a lot of people are getting because they go to the Government site and it's not there. You need clearer communication, easy-to-read communication, and understandable communication for the public on where you're at and what targets you're trying to meet.

A dedicated Minister to ensure the speedy and efficient roll-out seems to me to be an absolute must. You must have an awful lot on your plate, Minister, and I commend you for what you're doing, but this roll-out needs a dedicated person to ensure it's rolled out as soon as possible, not just for us, but the people of Wales—

Can you draw your remarks to a conclusion, please?

Many thanks.

We will be voting against the Conservative motion today. I agree with many elements of it. I do regret the slow start of the plan in Wales, although things are now speeding up. But on one specific point—. Well, (1) I don't want to take any lessons from the way in which the Government in England have dealt with the pandemic, but (2) I specifically don't think that we need a dedicated Minister for vaccination. As I've mentioned in the past, I think this is such of a priority for Wales at the moment that this has to be the focus of the health Minister, and the First Minister, even. I can't but think that going through the process of appointing a new Minister would actually diminish the focus required rather than providing full focus on this important work.

We will also be voting against the Government's amendment today—although there are elements of it on which I agree—first, because there is still some failure to recognise and to prioritise the pace of the vaccination process, but also because the amendment makes so much reference to supply. We are still waiting for the data that I have requested time and time again on supplies, so that we can measure that. I was very pleased that the Minister, at last yesterday, when responding to questions from me, has admitted that making such data public would be a positive step and that he is to consider how those figures on the allocation of the various vaccines to the four nations of the UK could work, by discussing that with Ministers across the four nations. I look forward to seeing that.

In terms of further comments, I'm pleased that we have an opportunity again to pay tribute to vaccination teams across the NHS. A great deal of ground has been gained over the past week, and we should all take pride in that. But we are still short of where we would like to be and where the Government told us we would be by this point. We're not just falling slightly short of the target of vaccinating 70 per cent of those over 80 when you hit only 52.8 per cent; we need honesty in that regard. Therefore, we will continue to ask questions and push the Government to ensure that the vaccination teams do receive the support and the supplies that they need.

Just two further points. First, I want to see the necessary investment in vaccination infrastructure for this period. This won't be the last time that we will need broad-ranging vaccination. We need to ensure that when we go through vaccination processes such as this again, possibly as part of this pandemic, we don't see the sluggishness that we have seen over the past few months. We need to invest in vaccination infrastructure. Secondly, I hear that Labour in England today called for the prioritisation of key workers such as teachers and police officers, as I have done. But the Labour Government here have said that we would be deprioritising others. I say that that's not deprioritising others, but building into the system that plan as to how those groups can be included and added to the plans that we currently have in place. So, let's hear that from the Minister in his response to this debate today. Thank you.

I want to welcome Angela Burns to the health portfolio, as I'm sure she would not have crafted this motion quite in this way. On point 2, we are supposed to be grateful that the significant supply of vaccines provided by the UK Conservative Government is being given to all home nations. I mean, is it not the job of the UK Government to deliver vaccines to the different nations and regions of the UK? That is their job. Why we should have to be grateful? Obviously, in other departments, they have treated Wales in a discriminatory way, in the way in which they distribute aid to Bristol Airport but not to Cardiff, or they renege on the Brexit promises that Wales would not be worse off financially, which is absolutely not true, or the billions that they're giving to HS2 but are not electrifying the south Wales main line beyond Swansea.

The Tories' five-point plan seems to be scoped to guarantee maximum chaos and minimum impact on the success of the Welsh vaccination programme. I have had many people suggesting that we ought to go along with the Tories' proposal for a vaccinations Minister, but in which case, which ministerial portfolio would you want to abolish? As Angela Burns well knows, the number of Ministers is restricted to 12; the alternative logic is that we have an online learning Minister, an active travel Minister, a bovine TB Minister. That is just not how Government operates. The second point is that you want all pharmacists and retired or former health professionals to be able to administer the vaccination. They are already doing that, but obviously they have to be vaccinated themselves before they start meeting lots of people, otherwise they'll be spreading the disease themselves. That's not a very good idea.

The final, genius idea is for a 24/7 vaccination centre across the country. How many people in the top four priority groups are going to be wanting to go along to have their jab at 03:00? How would they even get there when there are no buses running? There might well be demand for a 24/7 vaccination centre once we're vaccinating adults in their 20s—they can pop down there on their bikes; but not now. I'm fully aware of the concept of postcode lotteries, and indeed the inverse care law that applies to the disadvantaged, but the Tories have provided absolutely no evidence that this is what is happening with vaccinations in Wales. It's just false news thrown out to try and confuse the fact that the Welsh Labour Government is actually getting on with the job. And thank goodness there's very little chance of the Tories ever getting their hands on running the NHS in Wales.

I just want to point out that all the residents of the care homes in my constituency have already been vaccinated, and the remaining ones in Cardiff will have all been visited by the mobile vaccination unit by the day after tomorrow. All these care homes have already been—

Can the Member bring her remarks to a close, please?

—eight weeks after the first, and GP surgeries are busy sorting out all the over-80s, and will then move on to the over-75s. In short, the Welsh vaccination programme is—[Interruption.]

You do need to bring your contribution to an end.

[Inaudible.]—vaccinate all these priority groups before the middle of next month.

Before I start my contribution, I'll just say I'm disappointed to see amendments rejected when one amendment by Neil McEvoy reads:

'Calls on the Welsh Government to confirm whether it turned down 200,000 Pfizer vaccines at the beginning of January 2021.'

So, I'd like that as a specific question as part of my contribution.

Now, despite the Welsh Government receiving over 327,000 doses of both the Pfizer and the Oxford vaccine so far, we know that 312,305 have been used, leaving around 15,000 left to vaccinate. So, that's 15,000 risks to life. So, as the medics here have said in my constituency: you are simply failing to reach out to these residents quickly. We should note that Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board has seen the lowest percentage in Wales to be vaccinated, and this is made even more serious when considering that the board is responsible for the local authority area of Conwy county, with the highest percentage of older people aged 65. And I must make it clear that all those trained to vaccinate are wanting to vaccinate—so, absolutely no criticism on them. And I would like to say that Ysbyty Enfys, on Friday, despite the bad weather, managed to conduct 1,300 vaccines, working 13-hour days. So, we've got people there wanting to do this.

Now, I am still being bombarded—my office is as well—from concerned older residents. For example, I responded to an e-mail on Tuesday, which referred to a constituent aged 100 years old very worried about her vaccine. As two other constituents put it to me: 'The vaccination roll-out should be done at a sprint, and it is a competition against the virus, which, if lost, could result in thousands of lives lost unnecessarily in Wales.' Imagine how my constituents felt when learning that the pledge to vaccine 70 per cent of over-80s by the weekend was missed. Imagine how they feel when the local health board promised to open a local vaccination centre in Glasdir, Llanrwst, but cannot even provide an opening date. Imagine how they feel when the same health board promised to send a letter to every household in north Wales, but a lot of my constituents haven't received it. Imagine how they feel when they see that Venue Cymru is still not operating seven days a week, and imagine how they feel when friends and family younger than them are receiving vaccines in England, whilst they are still waiting here in Wales. They are fearful for their lives, upset, and suffering serious anxiety. And a local GP said to me only yesterday: 'This is now playing heavily in terms of mental health issues.' We all need to see urgent changes, and the Welsh Conservative plan offers that change. Imagine how my constituents feel when they learn that you simply choose to delete our proposal.

And finally, will you take heed of our older people’s commissioner and the fact that she too is disappointed with the missed targets? She also calls for some reassurance, and I'm asking for that reassurance, that those targets that you have set now to vaccinate all those living in and working in a care home by the end of January, and all over-70s by mid February will be met. The people of Wales deserve this, and you as a Welsh Government are responsible for the delivery of this. Diolch.

There's no doubt that, initially, the vaccine roll-out in Wales could be said to be tardy, but we have to acknowledge that the Welsh Government very quickly got its act together and the figures show that we are now in advance of both Scotland and Northern Ireland, and very close to figures for England. I will, of course, point out here that we are far in advance of southern Ireland whose presence in the European Union left them exposed to the bureaucratic debacle we have witnessed over vaccines there.

I would like to support item 1 on this motion and acknowledge the swift action taken by the UK Government in its acquisition and acceptance of the authorisation for vaccines and their distribution to the UK as a whole. This was, of course, only possible because of Brexit and the freedom of the UK to work unilaterally. This is in complete contrast to the European bureaucratic debacle, though I would add that I take no pleasure in the discomfort of our colleague citizens in Europe.

We shall not be supporting 4a in the motion, but we will be supporting 4b, because there is a great deal of anecdotal evidence showing that—[Inaudible.]—procedures are too complicated and time-consuming. We will be supporting the Welsh Government's amendments, and we would call upon the Welsh Government to continue the progress made to date, because it is becoming obvious that mass vaccination is the only way out of continued lockdown.

One thing I would like to draw the Government's attention to is the fact that we are sending out personal letters to those who are to be later notified of their attendance for vaccination. As, quite rightly, they are in both Welsh and English, each letter contains four pages. We would question the necessity for this letter, as it simply notifies the recipient that they will be notified at a later date. Given that approximately 2 million of such notifications must be sent out, can we call on the Welsh Government to reconsider this strategy? Thank you. Quite ridiculous.

I hope one advantage of sending out those letters is when people get them, fewer will be ringing up and complaining that they haven't got it and worrying and taking time that could be used for the programme, and I hope everyone will get their vaccinations when they are offered.

We support the motion that is before us today. We intend to abstain on the Government amendment, but support the motion if it is amended. Just one point around the Conservative motion—appointing a Welsh Government vaccines Minister, we think that Plaid Cymru are right to argue that it shouldn't be a new Minister, and I think Jenny Rathbone said it would be disruptive at this stage to appoint a new Minister. We agree with that, and in the Abolish the Welsh Assembly Party, we would like to see Welsh Government appoint the existing vaccines Minister, who is doing a very good job, Nadhim Zahawi, a UK Minister. He should be given an overview role, and particularly with that supply interface, working with what Welsh Government is doing.

I'd like to say congratulations to Welsh Government on the past week, because they have been vaccinating at around the same speed as in England. There's still a great shortfall to make up, but the past week's progress has been good, notwithstanding the snow. It would be good, though, to know when we do now expect to hit that over-80s 70 per cent target the First Minister told me yesterday wasn't met when it should have been.

Looking at congratulating the UK Conservative Government versus congratulating the MHRA, actually, we think they should all be congratulated, and the MHRA is an independent regulator, not just independent of the UK Government, but independent of the European Union and the European Medicines Agency process, and it is the UK Government that ensured the MHRA could and did proceed without waiting for that EMA process. It's been fantastic for us that that's happened, and very unfortunate for the European Union that the EMA has delayed things to such an extent with the EU Commission, and in particular when four national Governments were taking a hand and then great delay happened after that. It's most unfortunate.

The other person I think deserves huge congratulation is Kate Bingham and her vaccines taskforce, everyone who worked on that. All it seemed to get—she got brickbats and criticism for taking part in a private equity conference explaining how successful the programme was and what she had done to do that. She wasn't even paid for what she did. So, Kate, thank you very much for that work. It was very, very important. 

So, what we would like to see is the vaccination process speed up, but we've got a good supply. It's not perfect; there's a reference in the Government amendments to delays in supply, and obviously we are dependent on that supply, but the supply has been very, very good. It's hardly surprising that there was one batch of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine that had to be redone and there was a period to do that. Of course, it's a new manufacturing process. And actually it's been done very, very well. 

We heard Jenny Rathbone say that we shouldn't be grateful to the UK Government because it's only doing its job. And of course she's right, it is doing its job, but it is doing its job very, very well on this vaccination side, and for that I think we should be grateful. Only Israel, I think, has done a better job than the UK Government, and I think we should recognise that—everyone involved, the vaccines taskforce, MHRA, the overall supply. I'm pleased to see Welsh Government catching up with what it's meant to be doing on its side, and let's celebrate what's been achieved on the vaccination side. 

Thank you. I now call the Minister for Health and Social Services, Vaughan Gething. 

Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. I welcome the opportunity to debate the roll-out of the COVID vaccine programme today. The vaccination programme is our top priority, and we're doing everything we can to vaccinate as many people as quickly and as safely as possible with the minimum amount of wastage. We should all reflect upon how far we've come in such a short space of time. The vaccines we're using were only approved in December, with Pfizer in early December and the most recent, Oxford-AstraZeneca, less than a month ago.

In Wales, we're now delivering the fastest growing vaccine programme within the UK, with the quickest rate over the last week of any UK nation, and we're doing so in line with the advice of the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation, and we will not be throwing away the independent expert advice of the JCVI, Public Health Wales and the chief medical officer. That advice on priority groups is based on protecting and saving the maximum number of lives, and I will not depart from it. A huge amount of work was completed nationally and locally before any patients could be safely and legally vaccinated, including creating and then using vaccine-specific training, patient group directions and protocols, professional guidance and patient information resources. None of this can take place before vaccines are approved and the characteristics are known.

As of today, we have vaccinated at least 312,305 people in Wales. That's an increase of more than 22,700 on yesterday's figures. That's almost one in 10 of our population, and that is thanks to a Herculean effort by everyone involved. This is the biggest challenge we have faced as a nation in peacetime, and the planning, logistics and mobilisation of people involved has been an immense undertaking. And we do have a robust plan for delivery. The roll-out of the AstraZeneca vaccine and the involvement of primary care in administration has meant that we have been able to substantially increase the pace of vaccine delivery, especially over the last two weeks, and we are now vaccinating someone every five seconds, which is a startling figure and shows you something about the pace of our delivery here in Wales.

We hit two markers in our vaccine strategy last week in offering all front-line Welsh ambulance service staff their first dose of the vaccine. We also exceeded our end of January marker to have more than 250 GP practices deploying the vaccine. I announced on Monday we had at least 329 GP locations and over 300 practices involved in running vaccine clinics. Our approach encompasses all primary care professionals, including dentists, optometrists and pharmacists as well as GPs in the delivery of the vaccine programme. This includes a community pharmacy pilot, community vaccination centres and, from last weekend, clusters of GP practices running clinics in local communities. And those three GP cluster clinics that ran last weekend administered over 3,000 vaccines with the Pfizer vaccine, despite the snow. Many of those, of course, in the priority over-80s group. This is a significant step forward in terms of increasing our capacity to deliver the vaccine outside of mass-vaccination centres and closer to home, especially in those communities where access to these larger centres is difficult. Health boards will continue to work with GP practices across Wales to establish whether this can be rolled out more widely and to further build the capacity and speed at which the Pfizer vaccine can be deployed. And we are also making strong progress towards our final marker—that is, offering a vaccine to all care home residents and staff by the end of this month. We're currently vaccinating on average around 1,000 care home residents a day. Already over 11,000 care home residents at least, or nearly 70 per cent of this priority group at least, have already received their first dose, and more than three quarters of our care home staff have also received their first dose.

And on the original motion, whilst I recognise and respect the UK Government's role in securing these vital vaccines, and I do have a practical, grown-up working relationship with Whitehall Ministers, the subject of vaccine supply is always part of our discussions. We all recognise that we cannot succeed without it, and the provision of vaccines is, of course, a matter of fact. We started before other European countries because the independent regulator approved the vaccines for use. The vaccine supply chain itself is complex, and our plans adapt constantly to changes to delivery volumes and schedules, all of which have the potential to impact on achieving the milestones in our plan. Currently, health boards have a balance plan that is kept under constant review, in line with that changing information on the supply schedules. I'll be writing to the vaccines Minister for formal confirmation that we will be provided with sufficient vaccine in the short term to be able to vaccinate our mid-February milestone of cohorts one to four, to provide clarity and assurance that is needed to inform our expectations in the planning process, and I'll publish the letter and the response through correspondence with the Health, Social Care and Sport Committee, so Members will have access to it.

On perceived red tape, health boards are already making the process of onboarding volunteers—[Inaudible.]—as streamlined as possible. There will, of course, be some parts of the process that are necessary to ensure patient safeguarding. There are already clear targets published in the vaccine plan, with daily information on the number of people vaccinated already being published and more detail being planned week on week. An army of people is involved in the deployment programme, including the military. A sustainable infrastructure has been our priority and it is now paying dividends. We already have 30 mass-vaccination centres and are using 70 acute and community hospital sites to roll out more centres as we progress through cohorts one to four. Health boards already vaccinate seven days a week and work extended hours. We're monitoring take-up of late and early appointments, and we'll continue to review as we move through the age cohorts to ensure that we reach as many people as quickly as possible.

And of course, Wales already has a Minister in charge of vaccines and that is me. It is ludicrous to suggest that the Welsh Government would ever turn down a supply of vaccines that are essential to protect our people. This never has been done nor would be done, and the suggestion is wholly without foundation. It is wearing and irresponsible to use this national Parliament as a platform for scaremongering fiction, and I'm disappointed to hear Conservatives helping to promote fake news and being prepared to vote for it.

I am committed to transparency in the roll-out programme. Last week, we began daily releases of data, showing—

I do have to ask the Minister to wind up, please.

—the total cumulative number of vaccinations and we will continue to do so openly and transparently. We have scale and pace in our programme. As long as we receive our fair share of vaccines in fair times, I'm confident we'll achieve the milestones set out in our strategy.

Thank you. I call on Suzy Davies to reply to the debate.

Thank you, Dirprwy Lywydd, and can I thank all Members for their contributions? No-one is suggesting this is easy, which is why congratulating the UK Government on securing supplies so quickly really shouldn't have been very difficult. But I'm afraid, Minister, that you and the First Minister have made this a far more fraught experience that it needed to be, because of the poor communication surrounding your plans, as pointed out by Laura Jones. I think the least you can do is get that right, because you need our constituents to trust you. Our poor old health boards are dealing with all this; they're having to divert precious time answering constituents' questions on all this because of your central messaging—for example, one constituent who writes, 'My father has had a letter from the NHS informing him that his surgery will notify him when he is due to have the vaccine. The surgery has a note on its website saying that they will be notified by the NHS when they are due to receive the vaccine.' The NHS advice on avoiding scams quotes:

'The COVID-19 vaccine is free of charge' we

'will never ask for…personal documents to prove your identity such as your passport, driving licence, bills or pay slips.'

But the letter inviting you to the mass-vaccination centre says, 'When you attend, please bring with you some ID, such as your passport, driving licence or utility bill in your name.'

Vaccinations for school staff administering intimate care to pupils who need it—do I really need to go through the three versions of that announcement? Or that question about students on health work placements being entitled to vaccinations—now, clearly, universities didn't know what was going on at the time, and they still don't. Just today, this from a letter from a Welsh university to a student: 'I'm aware that some of you have had COVID-19 vaccinations whilst on placement, but we currently have no data on vaccine uptake availability to students and would like more information on this'. On top of that, we've got the corkers that the vaccine is being eked out so that vaccinators aren't standing around doing nothing, and 42,000 over-80s waiting for their jabs because of snow. I don't think so—I think Angela Burns has got you there.

So, there's no getting away from the fact that Wales has been behind the other UK nations on this—boy, you really have been pushing out on catch-up these last couple of days, but you're still behind, as Mark Reckless pointed out. We do all say a massive 'thank you' to those who've been diverted to this work and who are volunteering in support roles, but you could have saved yourself and our constituents a lot of heartache by temporarily appointing a Minister with focused responsibility for the vaccination programme. You've heard today from Janet Finch-Saunders how inconsistent the roll-out has been. Despite your—[Inaudible.]—it's not seven days a week everywhere. But if, as Jenny Rathbone says, that's not how Government works, then she's making it clear that it's you, Minister, that has to carry the can for the failures here.

Thank you. The proposal is to agree the motion without amendment. Does any Member object? I see an objection, and therefore we'll vote on this at voting time.

Voting deferred until voting time.