Questions Without Notice from the Party Leaders

Part of 1. Questions to the First Minister – in the Senedd at 1:47 pm on 23 March 2021.

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Photo of Mark Drakeford Mark Drakeford Labour 1:47, 23 March 2021

There are no quarantine facilities, Llywydd, because no flights to Cardiff Airport go to red-list countries. Only people travelling into the United Kingdom from the 30-odd countries on the red list are required to quarantine, and none of them are allowed to enter the United Kingdom via Wales. So, there is no case for quarantine facilities at Cardiff Airport because nobody anywhere in the United Kingdom would be required to quarantine under the circumstances that the Member refers to.

I am very anxious, as is the chief medical officer, as is Public Health Wales in the statements that were published last week, at the prospects of international travel being allowed from 17 May. I share the Member's concerns about the third wave on the continent of Europe. I share his concerns about people being able to return to the United Kingdom from places where the virus is in renewed circulation, particularly as there are new variants that are appearing in different parts of the world. I raised this matter with the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster in our regular call on Wednesday of last week. I've heard other UK Ministers over the weekend taking a slightly more precautionary approach to this than was originally envisaged in the Prime Minister's road map for England; I do hope that that will turn out to be true for some of the reasons that the leader of the opposition has identified.