Thank you very much, Deputy Presiding Officer. The Government entirely agrees that it's important that there should be an impartial and appropriate inquiry held into the way in which we have dealt with the pandemic. We do need to gather and sift evidence in a systematic way, listening carefully to the stories of those who saw their lives overturned in such a dramatic and cruel way during this difficult period. We need to analyse what was done well and those things that weren't done as well, and I know that many have listed some of those today. And we need to recommend to Governments, and to society more generally, what we can learn from our experiences of the pandemic, so that we can be ready to face similar challenges in the future. However, we will be voting against this motion.

The First Minister has already informed the Senedd that he agrees with the UK Prime Minister that a public inquiry that he said that he would commence in spring of next year should deal with the UK as a whole. As part of that, it will look separately at what happened in Wales. We believe—and this is the belief of the UK Prime Minister too, it appears—that this is the best possible arrangement for Wales.

Wales has been responsible, on a number of occasions over this period, for dealing in its own way with aspects of the pandemic, and on occasion, as we know, the Welsh Government has decided to do things differently to England. And, of course, it's fair that a public inquiry should consider those issues. However, other decisions were taken at a UK level, and the only appropriate way of considering those is through looking at the pan-UK situation, and that's why I don't agree with people such as Peter Fox. Holding a separate Welsh inquiry, as is suggested, would either lead to duplication of much of the work done by a UK-wide inquiry, or an England-only inquiry, or it would mean that important aspects of the pandemic that should be taken into account wouldn't be part of a Welsh inquiry. The agreement, therefore, between the First Minister and UK Prime Minister to hold a UK-wide inquiry ensures that particular attention must be paid to Wales as part of this inquiry.

Of course, there are many decisions yet to be taken about the inquiry. We will need to define its purpose very carefully in order to ensure that it considers the right issues. We will need to decide on the remit of the work. The pandemic has impacted on virtually all aspects of people's lives and all parts of society, and so, perhaps the remit of the inquiry will be very broad indeed. But, simultaneously, we must be able to keep control of this work and it must be completed within a reasonable timescale. So, we will need to strike the appropriate balance. We will need to draw the remit of the inquiry carefully and agree on that. The way in which the inquiry tackles the work will be important too, and, of course, there's a question as to who should undertake that inquiry, and that's very important too.