May I take this opportunity to extend my sincerest sympathies to those who have lost loved ones as a result of the terrible cruelty that we have suffered during the last 12 months, and those still suffering today? Our thoughts are with them all. As you said in your statement, First Minister, it will be some time before the impact of the pandemic can be fully understood, and I do fear that the scars on our society will last well into the future.

In hopelessness there is hope, and even in the darkest hours there is light, and our key workers have been a source of light and have supported us all through these dark days. I would like to thank them all from the bottom of my heart, to all the workers in the health service; the care workers; unpaid carers; teachers, who have maintained education remotely; the police force, who have put themselves at risk to ensure that the regulations are maintained for the benefit of all of us; our transport workers; those working in shops and supermarkets; our food producers, who have safeguarded our food supply chains; and to the undertakers, who do very difficult work at the best of times but who have had to do that under circumstances that have been so much more difficult. I would also like to thank everyone in Wales who has played their part in keeping everyone safe by making those sacrifices in following the unprecedented rules and regulations placed on all aspects of our lives. May I particularly give thanks to our young people, who have sacrificed more than anyone?

However, as Sir Mansel Aylward said recently, there are lessons to be learned from the past 12 months. We believe that we need an independent Welsh inquiry, as there will be lessons that are unique to Wales that need to be learned, and they perhaps wouldn't be given due focus in a UK-wide umbrella inquiry. But how can we recognise and learn lessons even now? I refer to the report of the Welsh NHS Confederation, along with other partners, which looked at the innovation that has happened during this period in responding to the appalling challenges that we have faced over the past 12 months, but through doing that, they've found new strengths: Wales at its best coming together, working across sectors; local government working with the health service on the ground in terms of the test and trace system and the vaccination regime; the use of new technology and digitisation working at a rate that nobody could have anticipated; the ability to put aside bureaucracy and to empower workers in our services to make decisions swiftly. How can we harness this experience, First Minister, in the new period facing us, which, of course, will pose ongoing challenges? Are there more general lessons too in the fact that we have benefited from ploughing our own furrow as a nation during the past 12 months?

And finally, as the British Academy report published today has outlined, the pandemic has highlighted and exacerbated the inequalities that already existed within our society. That's true of income and wealth, geography, gender and race. Is the pandemic a moment for us to decide to tackle these long-term and grave problems that have cast a shadow over our nation and our society for too long? Isn't this the greatest commitment that we can make in memory of the sacrifices and loss suffered by so many during this difficult year?