2. Business Statement and Announcement

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 2:45 pm on 9 November 2021.

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Photo of Jenny Rathbone Jenny Rathbone Labour 2:45, 9 November 2021

Last Sunday, I attended a remembrance service at the Armenian monument in Cathays Park, which was the first monument in memory of the holocaust suffered by the Armenian community in 1915. Llywydd, I’m sure you will recall that this institution and the Welsh Government at the time were the first to recognise the genocide of the Armenians during the first world war, and the first to put up a monument to the Armenian slaughter, which was unveiled by your predecessor, Dafydd Elis-Thomas. So, I hope we will all continue to remember the Armenian genocide, both this weekend and when we come to mark Holocaust Memorial Day at the end of January.

Trefnydd, in light of the earlier comments of the First Minister about the disturbing levels of corruption this UK Government is quickly becoming synonymous with, I’d like to request a statement from the Welsh Government about the damage done to Welsh citizens as a result of the awarding of the contract for PCR testing to Immensa Health Clinic in Wolverhampton just weeks after it was incorporated. An initial grant of £119 million last year and a further £50 million this August has been given to a company that is not capable of providing accurate PCR tests. Forty-three thousand PCR tests were declared negative when in fact they were positive in September and the beginning of October alone. So, in this statement, may we be told how many of the false-negative tests affected people living in Wales? And what steps is the Welsh Government taking to seek compensation for the false-negative tests, which we know, from recent remarks from the director of public health, have contributed to the spread of COVID in south-east Wales?