I'm going to start with a confession. When I and my Plaid Cymru colleagues called for the public inquiry into the pandemic in Wales in the first few months of the pandemic, I had perhaps failed to make something clear enough: when Government signalled that it too was supportive of having an inquiry, I had wrongly assumed that they, as I was, were referring to a Wales-specific inquiry. And when Government made it clear that its support was actually for a UK-wide inquiry and for a consideration of what happened in Wales to be included only as part of that UK-wide inquiry, I initially thought that I had misheard, but I hadn't. It was later made clear that Welsh Government were referring to a Welsh chapter, or chapters, in a UK-wide piece of work. Why did I assume that? Because to my mind, it was so obvious that we have to have an inquiry that is wholly dedicated to considering what happened here.

Wales chose devolution so that we could begin to take more responsibility for our own future—to grow up as a nation. That slim initial support for the establishment of the Assembly grew into a thumping support for full law-making. We now have a Senedd—a Welsh Parliament, and a Government formed from within it has the honour of leading us through any difficult times we may encounter as a nation.

The COVID challenge, of course, has been by far the biggest challenge faced by any Welsh Government and we can certainly make some general comments about the actions of Welsh Government in facing up to that challenge. It has, without doubt, taken its duties seriously. It's done its best with integrity, I believe, to achieve what it sought as best outcomes for the people of Wales. We can then pick away at particular elements of its actions. It has done much well. It has made mistakes too. It has acted quickly at times. It has lagged behind at other times. It has, at times, taken advantage of our ability to be agile as a small nation. At other times, it’s failed to grasp some opportunities. There are things it’s done that we would want to repeat with even more vigour, if faced with such challenge again, and other things, no doubt, we’d want to avoid. Some decisions have saved lives, and others have caused unnecessary risk. Now, all of that is, in many ways, inevitable. It’s been 21 months or so of tough calls and relentless pressure on Government and on Ministers, but one thing that is beyond question is that we have to learn. We will face similar challenges again. Even tougher ones, perhaps. It may be in our lifetimes, it may not, but we are the ones, right now, who can make sure we’re leaving no stone unturned in our quest for answers.

When I and my colleagues in Plaid Cymru called for the early establishment of an inquiry, we were told that it would be a distraction. What is a distraction to the quest for the best possible learning is the passage of time. We argued that, at the very least, a chair could be put in place. Perhaps frameworks could be put in place. Evidence could begin to be gathered whilst memories were still fresh, in real time, in ways that didn’t interrupt the work of actually battling the pandemic. And here we are, facing a second pandemic Christmas and, by aligning ourselves with the UK inquiry, we still have no timescale. We don’t even have really fundamental makings of an actual inquiry. It remains a commitment in principle, whilst real and actual questions go unanswered around so many areas: testing, care homes, early intervention, PPE, vaccination, ventilation, school closures, major events, care home visits, shielding, mask wearing, mental health, economic support, and many more.

Colleagues across the Chamber, I’m sure, will focus on different elements. In all of these areas, our experiences: losing loved ones, suffering ill health, working in health and care and other key sectors, missing education, businesses under pressure—it all happened in the context of decisions taken in Wales, and perspective will be key if we’re to get honest answers. By definition, the UK inquiry will not look at things from a Welsh perspective. It may consider, from the outside, what happened in Wales, but it will not have a Welsh perspective. It may consider the interaction between decisions in different parts of the UK, but it will not look at those interactions from a Welsh perspective.

Llywydd, to conclude, we will support the Conservative motion today and, I have to say, at the same time, whilst deeply regretting the nature of actions of the UK Conservative Government in relation to the pandemic in so many ways. And we reject Welsh Government’s amendment. It doesn’t cut it to say that you have been given assurances from the UK Government, that you have been given the assurances you seek by the Prime Minister. Without doubt, the undermining of trust by the Prime Minister himself, through his actions time and time again, undermines further our trust that a UK inquiry would give Wales the answer it wants. We rightly now take decisions of our own in Wales through Welsh Government. We welcome that as a nation, and Welsh Government has to welcome the most in-depth scrutiny.