We have two petitions before us today—one an appeal for prioritisation for police officers for COVID vaccination, the other the prioritisation of school staff and childcare staff. The Minister will be aware that I have raised these issues with him on a number of occasions. He was complaining in the health committee this morning that I'd brought the issue up three times in just a few days. But I'm sorry, that's how scrutiny works, and I'm pleased to raise some of those questions again this afternoon in supporting and sympathising with the petitioners. The reason I do sympathise with and support this call to ensure that a system is put in place to vaccinate people in public-facing roles—and we could add others to the list—is not because I doubt the JCVI's prioritisation list; it makes sense that the oldest or more vulnerable should be on top of the list, because they are most likely to become ill or worse. But I'm still convinced that exposure does contribute to the risk too, whatever one's age. Health and care workers were prioritised—of course they were. They have put themselves in extremely high-risk scenarios over the past year, and our thanks to them is very great indeed.

But, at a lower level, there are other roles where people face a risk of coming into contact with the virus far more than people like you and I. I've been very proud to play a very small role as a public servant over the past year in holding the Government to account, and I've done that from here. The reason I've been working from home is to try and prevent the spread of the virus and to keep myself and my family safe. But others aren't able to work from home.

We all want schools to reopen, but that means more risk to some of the people associated with that, including school staff. I understand that an incident occurred recently on Anglesey, where somebody spat at a police officer and tested positive subsequently. We need to restore people's confidence that everything possible is being done to respond to the various levels of risk. And, yes, I will fully support the Minister and his efforts to go through the prioritisation list, as it's been set out by the JCVI, according to age, as soon as possible. But, surely, along with that, we can ensure that other public servants, those in key roles who do face a day-to-day risk can also be prioritised. That doesn't mean deprioritising others, although I, as I have said in the past, because I work in this place, am happy to be deprioritised so that those in public-facing roles can be vaccinated before me.