4. Statement by the First Minister: Review of the Health Protection (Coronavirus Restrictions) (No. 5) (Wales) Regulations 2020

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 3:32 pm on 19 May 2021.

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Photo of Mark Drakeford Mark Drakeford Labour 3:32, 19 May 2021

Llywydd, I thank Jenny Rathbone for that question, which we've debated a number of times during the whole of the pandemic, and it is one of the hardest areas of all, isn't it, when a couple are expecting a child and are unable to receive the normal sorts of appointments and joint involvement in the birth of a child that we would all want to see. The guidance in Wales encourages the system to be as welcoming as possible, but the reason for discretion is real. Maternity units across Wales vary enormously in terms of the size of the premises, the nature of the layout of buildings and so on, and, obviously, individuals come with different levels of risk themselves. Coronavirus has not gone away; people who are ill with it find themselves in hospital, and it has to be, in the end, a clinical decision made by the team of people looking after the woman and her partner as to how safe it is for other people to be involved directly in appointments. Now, the policy is that wherever it is safe to do so, that is what should happen, but I don't think we are in a position in the Senedd to make those individual clinical judgments in the different physical circumstances and individual circumstances that people face.