Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 5:52 pm on 11 January 2022.
I do hope that if people did feel able to support these measures today, they would then have the opportunity to really look at the detail of what we've set out in that guidance. Thank you for that intervention, Huw.
Certainly, what we've found is that we did have guidance in place, but as the threat of omicron became clearer, it was clear that we needed to strengthen the protections, because what we found was that the mobility data that we were seeing suggested that, actually, people weren't taking the 'work at home' guidance seriously. I do think it's important that people understand that the guidance for employees makes it absolutely clear that people can go to work for well-being reasons, and it provides advice to employees also to make sure that they understand that they can get additional support and advice from their unions or the trade union movement.
Currently, fixed-penalty notices can be issued in respect of any offence, and enforcement officers can issue a fine to a person who has committed an offence. But what concerns me is that, if the provision were to be removed in relation to working from home, it could unintentionally signal that the requirement to work from home is seen as somehow a lesser obligation to all other requirements in the regulations, and it could weaken that requirement to a point where it would no longer be effective. So, I would like to just reiterate the point that we've heard the views in terms of individuals being fined. We are committed to certainly look at this, but the way to resolve this, I would like to underline, is not to defeat the regulations today; it's to allow those regulations to go through, to allow that discussion to continue. I would urge Members to support the regulations before us today. Diolch.