Questions Without Notice from the Party Leaders

Part of 1. Questions to the First Minister – in the Senedd at 1:58 pm on 28 September 2021.

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Photo of Mark Drakeford Mark Drakeford Labour 1:58, 28 September 2021

I've been reminded of it. Yes, it's an important point. At large-scale events—let's take the obvious example of a rugby international in Cardiff—the public health adverse impacts of checking everybody's pass would outweigh the advantages of the pass itself, because you would have long queues of people spending lots of time jostling next door to one another. We are clear in the guidance that we will publish that, in those circumstances, it will be possible for event organisers randomly to check people's COVID pass. So, anybody could be asked to demonstrate it, but not everybody. That is what happened yesterday in the Labour Party conference, when the adverse effects of having lots and lots of people queuing outside in very bad weather were thought to outweigh the advantages of the pass itself. But the fact that it could be you, or that you're in that queue and you see people being called out and having to demonstrate it, and know that you could be the next one—I don't think that that impact was slight on people. You could see that it did mean something significant to them.