Part of 1. Questions to the First Minister – in the Senedd at 1:58 pm on 12 October 2021.
I thank Adam Price for that. Llywydd, I've been asked the question many times, 'Were there things that you would have done differently had you known then what you know now?' I think that that question is particularly pertinent to those very early stages of coronavirus, when so many things that we have learned since we simply weren't aware of in the way that we are now, whether that is community testing or whether it's the example I've most often given, which is: had we understood the extent to which coronavirus was already seeded through the United Kingdom, and had we understood the rapidity with which this virus would spread to other parts and to other communities, we would have acted earlier to introduce some of the measures that were only introduced in the second half of March. But we didn't know those things then. We were following the advice that we had at the time. As our knowledge grew and as we were able to make our own independent decisions because we had the knowledge base that allowed us to do so, as Adam Price says, the Welsh Government has not hesitated to take our own decisions where we thought that that was in the best interests of Wales. But at each point, I think it is fair for people to think about: what did we know then, what do we know now, and in the light of circumstances at the time, did we make the best decisions that we were able to?