8. The Health Protection (Coronavirus Restrictions) (No. 5) (Wales) (Amendment) (No. 13) Regulations 2021

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 5:36 pm on 29 June 2021.

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Photo of Russell George Russell George Conservative 5:36, 29 June 2021

Thank you, Minister, for the regulations today and bringing them forward. I can certainly say that, as Welsh Conservatives, we’ll be supporting the regulations today that have been brought forward in retrospect, because clearly they are relaxing a number of restrictions, including, as you mentioned, weddings and funerals, which, as you said, are important life moments for families. I agree with all your sentiments on that. I’m very pleased to see those in these current regulations.

I’m also very pleased—I know we’ve spoken about it previously—about outdoor educational centres and overnight stays. That’s very much welcome. The concern I have—and I hope this will be taken as perhaps a lesson to be learnt—is the lead time of these announcements, because many businesses need time to change their arrangements, and schools are already making arrangements in advance for obvious reasons. So, if there’s a short lead time, then there just won’t be time before the end of the school term in order to make use of that particular regulation. I am concerned that some schools, perhaps from England, who usually come to Wales, will go to England this year, and then they'll keep going back to England rather than coming back to Wales.

I note the amendment to regulation 16 of the principal regulations, and I see that there’s clarification there on risk assessments made by persons responsible for regulated premises, including the 2m social distancing rule. I very much welcome that particular amendment. I think that’s good and correct. I also note that premises, under the new requirement, must ensure that they have well-ventilated areas. I’d be grateful, perhaps in your summing up, if you’ve got any further details in that regard. I’m particularly thinking of business where, perhaps, due to the building structure, it’s very difficult to make changes, and if there’s any business support available to help those particular businesses. I’m sure it's not just applicable to businesses, but other public areas as well.

I’d also be grateful if you could explain your Government’s policy on the mitigation of COVID spread in schools, colleges and universities. Yesterday, I know that your colleague the Minister for education said that it will soon be up to individual premises to decide their own COVID safety rules in the future, and there will be no class bubbles or a requirement for schools to identify close contacts themselves. I know from reports yesterday that some of the unions have outlined that this policy would be impractical from their position, and that the decisions on COVID safety such as these should be decided by clinicians rather than teachers. That was the unions' view yesterday. So, I’d welcome your views and thoughts on that, in terms of do you agree with the union stance on that, or do you, of course, agree with your colleague the education Minister.

Speaking of getting back to some normality again, I can see that the UK Government has recommitted again its date of 19 July. The Scottish Government has pretty much done the same for 19 July as well, and is talking about going to level 0. I know that we've had long discussions on this in this Chamber, about having a date in stone like that. We're seeing now more infections in Wales, of course, but we're now at a point where we've seen zero COVID deaths reported by the Office for National Statistics for the first week since the pandemic. This has of course got to be extremely positive news for us to have that statistic. Also, general and acute beds occupied by COVID patients are now at their lowest level since the pandemic began all those months ago. So, I'm asking, I suppose, the questions in that regard.

Public Health Wales has recently produced figures for the delta variant, which show 117 deaths from 92,000 delta variant cases. I've got a whole range of stats here, which I won't go through, but, basically, the stats are outlining that if you've had those two vaccinations, then it's going to be extremely unlikely that you're going to be hospitalised. So, I know I'm going to sound like a bit of a broken record here, Minister, but, we're very much looking for that date. We know now—good news again—that 89 per cent of those over 18 have had their first vaccination in Wales. That's good, positive news. So, in that regard, with all this information coming together, I'm very much hoping that you'll be able to give us now some indication of when we will have that date in terms of lifting those restrictions and getting back to some degree of normality. I'm hoping that, one week when I ask that question, you will be able to give us that date.

Minister, it's not just, of course, normality for businesses as well, and education, which matters, but it's also bringing the NHS back to capacity through routine treatment and enabling it to cope with the huge backlog that we're facing in Wales. I have no doubt we'll be continuing to ask these questions throughout the course of the NHS's recovery from COVID-19. But I understand that NHS England has been steadily increasing its capacity to reduce the backlogs there, and will be working towards 115 per cent capacity during the medium term, to manage their waiting lists. It has further been able to establish COVID-lite sites across health boards over the last year, starting with cancer hubs. So, can I ask you about capacity here in Wales? Are there any capacity percentage targets that you will be working towards in that regard? What are we likely to see over this Senedd term? I also note that you've outlined, previously, your concerns about the 30,000 fewer cancer inquiries that the Welsh NHS has had—[Interruption.]—so far this year. I agree, of course—