Part of 1. Questions to the First Minister – in the Senedd at 1:57 pm on 23 February 2021.
Let me begin by agreeing with the sentiments that Bethan Sayed was expressing at the very end of her supplementary question. I've never myself used the mantra 'build back better'; I always say 'build back fairer', because if it isn't fairer, it's not going to be better. She's right to point out the disproportionate impact that the last 12 months has had on women in Wales, as it has on young people, as it has on people from BAME communities. The Welsh Government lobbies the UK Government all the time when it taken actions of which we disapprove and that do not fit with our wish to create a more equal Wales, as the Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015 requires us to do. When we publish our spending decisions and the decisions that we have made during lockdown, we accompany them with an equality impact assessment, because we try to see all those decisions through the lens of the equality impact that those decisions have on people. We publish those equality impacts alongside the decisions that we make.
I'm very glad indeed that we have a fertile debate here in Wales all the time about how we can do more and do better to make sure that the decisions that we make during the pandemic, and especially as we come out of it, are focused on those people whose needs are the greatest, where the adverse impact has been the most profound, and where we can use the powers that we have to make a real difference. In that sense, my starting point and the starting point of the Member are the same. We might come to different conclusions about the practical implementation of some of those things, but I don't for a minute dissent from the underlying thrust of what she's said this afternoon.