I speak on behalf of Plaid Cymru as co-tabler of the motion. All of us in this Chamber represent people affected by this terrible pandemic: people who have lost loved ones, people who want to know that when this happens again—hopefully not in our lifetimes—that Wales can be prepared, as prepared as possible, and as well armed as we possibly could be to make the right decisions next time.

It was obvious we would need an inquiry. We called for one. Welsh Government agreed. But it turns out we were talking about two very different inquiries. For us, it always had to be a Wales-specific inquiry, running side by side with the UK one—why not? There were indeed decisions that were Whitehall based that affected all of us, and areas of shared responsibility too, but so many decisions were rightly taken wholly in Wales by Welsh Ministers, who were held to account here in this Senedd. Budgets were set in Wales. People were treated by dedicated staff in the Welsh NHS. Thousands died across the health and care sectors in Wales. We could only scrutinise those actions properly with a Wales-specific inquiry.

But the Labour Government chose to opt out of that forensic level of scrutiny, choosing instead to leave it all in the hands of whatever inquiry Boris Johnson, at the time, decided to establish. And that, I have no doubt, did a disservice to the people of Wales, the COVID bereaved, and all of us wanting to ensure that lessons are learnt. In March this year—I quote from the Welsh Government's website—the First Minister said that 'concerted representations' had been made

'to the Prime Minister to ensure the experiences of people in Wales will be properly and thoroughly reflected in the inquiry'.

In April, he said:

'I'm pleased to see that there are already strong signs that the inquiry...will be committed to ensuring that the inquiry is conducted in a way that is accessible to people in Wales, and provides them with the answers that they want.'

But it's the chair, Baroness Hallett herself, that gave us the reality. When asked at the start of the inquiry about the level of scrutiny that could be given to issues relating to Wales, she spelt out clearly that she cannot cover every issue. But we have to try to.

Now, whilst I'm still of the view that we need a Welsh inquiry, today's motion offers a pragmatic alternative. Some have suggested that a committee of this Senedd could hold a full Welsh inquiry—I have some concerns about capacity for that—but this motion does spell out what could be done. If the UK inquiry cannot possibly cover all issues, let us do the gap analysis, if you like; identify what isn't being given the scrutiny it needs, and then focus on seeking answers around those issues. What possible objection could Government and Labour Members have to that? They tell us they agree with the need for answers, that we need to learn lessons. Well, here's a way, cross-party, using the parliamentary tools at our disposal as a Senedd.

We know what some of the gaps are. We can already get to work. Some elements relating to Wales aren't even in the scope of the UK inquiry. The Welsh Government didn't even challenge the fact that there was no Welsh element to the preliminary hearing on module 1 on pandemic preparedness. Looking at the timetable, it's clear there won't be time—