Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 5:30 pm on 12 October 2021.
Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. Minister, I think you and the Government are being slightly unfair in saying that no-one knew what was to come at the beginning of last year and that it's easy to use hindsight, as the First Minister mentioned earlier. I think we all saw the pictures coming from Italy at the beginning of the year, and from China too, and everyone had a pretty good idea of what we were facing. But, in addition to that, thanks to Dr Moosa Qureshi, we know that the UK Government held a thorough preparation for a coronavirus event, and that was five years ago, and it was called Exercise Alice. This apparently warned us of the need to stock PPE and the need for a thorough test and trace system, among many other things. And if the report in The Guardian is to be believed, the Welsh Government were witness to that exercise and accepted the recommendations. So, why didn't the Government take action on those recommendations, Minister?