6. Will the First Minister make a statement on the vaccination roll-out in Mid and West Wales? OQ56315

Llywydd, I thank the Member for that question. Vaccines are currently being administered in 260 sites in the health boards that cover Mid and West Wales. We remain on track in all parts of Wales to deliver the milestone set out in our national vaccination strategy. In the coming days, we will exceed 1 million doses of vaccine delivered here in Wales.

I thank the First Minister for his answer and I know that we are all very impressed by the amazing work that's gone into delivering the vaccination programme. But the First Minister will be aware that the families and friends of people with learning disabilities living in residential settings continue to be very concerned about the fact that those people they care about so much have not yet been prioritised. I've personally lost count of the number of representations I've received—from Llanelli to Powys, from Pembrokeshire to Pen Llŷn—from families who are concerned, and given that Mencap estimate that there are only about 3,500 people in that category of learning disabled people who live in residential settings.

I was encouraged the hear the health Minister, Vaughan Gething, on ITV saying last night that there may be guidance available in a day or two to enable the Welsh Government to provide those vaccines. Now, if this is able to go ahead, can I ask the First Minister if he and the health Minister will place a priority on learning disabled people within priority group 6? The local health board tells me that that priority group is very large indeed, and I'm sure it would be a huge reassurance to those families and friends if the First Minister and his health Minister were able to prioritise learning disabled people within priority 6, if indeed they are to be included in that priority.

Well, Llywydd, I thank Helen Mary Jones for that important supplementary question, and I think there is some good news coming for those families who are absolutely understandably concerned. I've seen the advice that the Minister will consider today on this matter in relation to prioritisation of group 6. Helen Mary Jones will know that the broad category of number 6 is underlying health conditions, and within that the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation identifies people with severe and profound learning disabilities. But the advice that I've seen going to the Minister advocates an inclusive approach, where the approach is less on gatekeeping than on ensuring that nobody entitled to vaccination is missed out.

So, the proposal is to use GP registers of people with a learning disability as the basis of identifying eligible individuals, and that that should be supplemented by professional judgment and wider local knowledge, held, for example, by third sector organisations or by local authorities. And the advice goes beyond simple identification to creating the right conditions for people with a learning disability to be able to come forward comfortably, to feel at ease in receiving vaccination and thus to maximise take-up. So, the Minister will be considering that advice today, but I hope the Member is reassured that the approach that it takes is not one in which we take 'severe and profound' as a definition designed to minimise the number of people who can come through in that group, but to take a more inclusive approach, making sure that nobody who is entitled misses out. That is the approach we will want to take in Wales.

And, Llywydd, maybe I should just say that the fact that we have GP registers of people with a learning disability, of course, is due to a very early decision made in the very first term of devolution, when David Melding brought forward a proposition for an annual health check for people with learning disabilities, supported around the Chamber at the time, and, as a result, we have these registers and are able now to use them, put them to good work, to make sure that people with learning disabilities are able to be vaccinated in line with that group 6 priority.

First Minister, that's really good news on the learning disability issue. Are you able to offer equally good news for unpaid carers? Because my inbox, and I'm sure every other Senedd Member's inbox, is absolutely full of people who are unpaid carers, desperate to have a vaccine, because if they get sick, the people who need their help—the elderly relative or the disabled child, whoever it may be—don't have anyone else to look after them. I note with the JCVI that they do talk about the whole caring situation, and they do have an addendum, and it says:

'Other groups at higher risk, including those who are in receipt of a carer’s allowance, or those who are the main carer of an elderly or disabled person whose welfare may be at risk if the carer falls ill, should also be offered vaccination alongside these groups.'

There's a number of instances where either you or the health Minister has said, 'Yes, the decision's coming; it's going to happen', and then it's been put off while you're waiting to see what the JCVI say. They already say that, so are you able to offer the same kind of hope to those unpaid carers who are so desperate and so worried over this issue?

Well, I don't recognise what the Member says about decisions made and then delayed. We have said all along we will follow the JCVI advice and that includes including unpaid carers within priority group 6. Alongside the advice we will publish on people with learning disabilities, we will publish this week the definitions that we will use to make sure that unpaid carers are able to come forward and be vaccinated as part of that group. It cannot be, as the Member will understand, a simple self-certification, otherwise anybody would be able to walk through the door and get vaccinated on their own say-so. All four Governments in the UK are agreed that we cannot do that. We therefore do have to use definitions to make sure that the right people are prioritised, and we're trying to do that on an aligned basis across the UK to make sure that those definitions are common between us. We'll publish the detailed guidance on that this week. I'm very keen indeed, of course, that people who are unpaid carers get the vaccination as fast as possible because of the enormously valuable work they do and the vulnerability of those people who rely on their care.