Questions Without Notice from Party Spokespeople

Part of 1. Questions to the Minister for Economy – in the Senedd at 1:50 pm on 7 July 2021.

Alert me about debates like this

Photo of Vaughan Gething Vaughan Gething Labour 1:50, 7 July 2021

I think the challenge in giving an honest answer to that question is that we don't know all of the issues around that, and we've just got to be honest about this. We know that we're in the midst of a significant spike in coronavirus infections. We know that there is a different relationship between infections and harm. It's why the hospitalisation and the death rate have not climbed in the way that we've seen in the past. And, to be frank, with the rates we see today, if we didn't have the success of the vaccination programme, we'd have already gone into reverse. Now that's good news, because it shows we have got more latitude. What we can't say, though, is, 'We have an exact formula now that tells us about the amount of harm that would be caused and the extra latitude we have.' We're working through that, though, and what I can't do is pre-empt the conversations that we have not finished within the Government with the advice we have still not had finalised from our scientific advisers, and indeed our public health advisers too. We do, though, understand right across the Government that we're in a phase now where the balancing of the health harms and the economic harms and others we've always had to look at is now shifting towards the greater harms in terms of economic activity. That doesn't mean to say there's no balance to be struck, but we do think we're in a different relationship.

So, yes, we will continue to look at the emerging evidence on the changed, not broken, relationship between infections and harm. We will continue to look at pressure within the NHS. We will continue to look at the impact on the economy. And we will continue to look at the success of the vaccination programme. That will allow us to have the conversations that are already taking place with the events sector, with hospitality, with others. Nightclubs are one of the few sectors that still remain closed, and we're looking to give them the sort of perspective they will need to allow themselves to reopen safely and, as the Deputy Minister said in answer to previous questions, to think about their own processes for the guidance that will be in place, for their own risk assessment that they will need to undertake for their staff and their customers.