Questions Without Notice from Party Spokespeople

Part of 1. Questions to the Minister for Economy – in the Senedd at 1:44 pm on 16 February 2022.

Alert me about debates like this

Photo of Tom Giffard Tom Giffard Conservative 1:44, 16 February 2022

You say they did what you set them up to do. I don't know that I agree, because I think COVID passes have had a minimal impact on protecting public health. The Chief Medical Officer for Wales himself said that the impact is 'probably quite small', and the advice from the technical advisory cell to the Welsh Government was that 

'there remains a high degree of uncertainty around the effectiveness of the COVID Pass in reducing infections given the absence of robust evaluation of these interventions.'

And TAC also said that several reviews suggest that COVID passes have the potential for harm as well as benefit. The only evidence that COVID passes work are in countries where uptake of the vaccine is extremely low, which, thanks to the UK-wide vaccination success, is nowhere near the case here in Wales. Not only this, it's had a negative impact on our economy, as my colleague Paul Davies has raised previously. The average cost of implementing COVID passes was around £400 a week. Businesses have not only had to face hefty financial costs of the passes, they've also faced significant reductions in footfall, with some businesses losing up to 50 per cent of revenue. Therefore, Deputy Minister, I'll ask you again: what evidence does the Welsh Government have that COVID passes were a success?