Questions Without Notice from the Party Leaders

Part of 1. Questions to the First Minister – in the Senedd at 1:56 pm on 28 September 2021.

Alert me about debates like this

Photo of Mark Drakeford Mark Drakeford Labour 1:56, 28 September 2021

Thank you again for those questions. A COVID pass system is a compromise. If you had vaccine passport certification, then some of the points that the Member makes about the limitations of lateral flow tests wouldn't arise, but as we know, vaccine passports come with a series of other considerations—they've been raised here by the leader of the Welsh Conservatives on a number of occasions—to do with the ethics of it, and whether they discriminate against people who would be unable to do that.

A COVID pass allows those people to demonstrate they've taken reasonable measures to protect themselves, but it comes with the vulnerability that, at the moment, a lateral flow device particularly could be vulnerable to exploitation. In our regulations, which the Senedd will have an opportunity to debate next week, we will make it a specific offence, a criminal offence, knowingly to falsify the results of a lateral flow device, to make it clear to people that to do so is to put other people directly in danger. I'm aware of the technology the Member raises. We've been in some discussions with the UK Government about it as well, and if it becomes possible, through technology, to move lateral flow devices beyond self-certification, then I agree that that would certainly be an important step forward.

On the booster programme, we continue to learn a lot, I think, about the extent to which there is a waning impact from vaccination, and the booster programme is going to be with us for many months ahead because you will not be offered a booster until six months has elapsed since your second vaccine. I think that will give us an opportunity to learn a bit more from the actual evidence as to whether or not you'd expect a booster vaccine to be part of any COVID pass.

I failed to write down the final point that the Member made—[Interruption.]