Part of 1. Questions to the First Minister – in the Senedd at 1:55 pm on 3 May 2022.
Well, just again to be completely clear with the leader of Plaid Cymru, that is not an observation that the High Court has made in hearing anything at all about decisions that were made in Wales. The Member can try if he wants to try and imply that because it made a general observation that must, somehow, apply here in Wales. I don't think he's entitled to do that. This was a hearing about two English cases. It didn't take a single word of evidence about what happened in Wales. But the point the Member asks is about asymptomatic transmission. The inquiry will, I think, need to explore the point at which it became clear that coronavirus was a disease that could be spread by asymptomatic individuals; at what point did that advice crystalise and become known to Governments; and at the point when it did become crystalised, what would be the policy consequences of it. Those are absolutely proper questions—no doubt at all about that—and the inquiry will want to grapple with them.