Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer—diolch. I want to start by thanking the Business Committee for agreeing to the debate requests that the Petitions Committee has made in recent weeks. It is fair to say that they've had a very difficult job, given the number of debates that have come forward for requests and the number of petitions that we've received with very, very large numbers.

Now, this debate, the first of two to be held by our committee this afternoon, will cover two large petitions concerning the prioritisation of key professions during the COVID-19 vaccination programme. The first asks for police officers to be given the COVID-19 vaccination as a priority, whilst the second petition calls for prioritisation to be given to teachers and school and childcare staff.

These are two of a number of petitions submitted to the Senedd about such issues, which have also included ones calling for others, such as retail staff, telecommunications engineers, volunteer emergency services—for all of them to be considered as a priority for vaccination. The importance of getting the vaccination programme right is clear to us all, and each of these groups do have legitimate cases as to why they could be offered the vaccine early.

I will now briefly introduce the cases that have been put forward in the two specific petitions for debate today. The first, ‘Give Police Officers the Covid Vaccination as a priority’, was submitted by Graham Bishop with 10,879 signatures. Though it gained wider support from the police federation and others, the reasoning behind this petition was personal.

The petitioner’s son is a police officer who contracted COVID. This had a knock-on impact on his family, as the virus was transmitted to his wife, who was pregnant and who then delivered twins early whilst hospitalised due to the virus. Subsequently, his son has also experienced the debilitating effects of long COVID. I’d like to take this opportunity to pass on our best wishes to the petitioner and his family following this very difficult set of circumstances.

Members, all of our front-line emergency workers put themselves at risk every day when carrying out their duties, something COVID-19 has served to both highlight and accentuate. I want to pay tribute to everyone who has continued to carry out their roles through this dreadful pandemic, sometimes at considerable personal cost, including our police officers, who, of course, serve the public with such distinction.

Now, the second petition, 'Prioritise teachers, school and childcare staff for COVID-19 vaccination', was submitted by Jonathan Môn Hughes with a total of 16,288 signatures. This one highlights risks in relation to asymptomatic spread of COVID-19 within schools and the risk that some teachers may face from contracting the virus, as well as the number of teaching days lost due to school closures and periods of self-isolation.

I’d also like to take this chance to note my thanks to all staff in any education setting, and also to include our childcare settings, who have continued to provide vital support and education to our young children throughout this difficult pandemic.

The issue of vaccinations has had a high profile, of course, and has been raised repeatedly by teaching unions and others, particularly in the context of the return of pupils to schools. Arguments for taking a proactive approach to vaccinating school staff have included, firstly, providing increased protection to staff who come into close contact with pupils and, secondly, the potential benefit in reducing the amount of teaching time lost by pupils.

As time is short, I will leave it to other contributors to discuss the merits, or otherwise, of the cases being put forward by these petitions. To conclude, it is important to reference the decision announced by the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation—the JCVI—at the end of last week, which is of major relevance to these proceedings. Having continued to review the emerging evidence around the vaccination programme, they concluded that it should continue to be delivered on the basis of age and other medical factors, rather than prioritised on the basis of occupation. I imagine that the Minister will wish to say more about this decision and the implications for the Welsh vaccination roll-out towards the end of this debate. I want to acknowledge, of course, that this will be a blow to those behind these petitions. I look forward to the contributions of other Members during the rest of this debate. Diolch yn fawr.