Diolch, Dirprwy Lywydd, and I move the motion this afternoon, tabled in the name of my colleague, Darren Millar. Our motion today proposes that this Senedd establishes a Wales COVID-19 inquiry special purpose committee and agrees that the remit of the committee would be to (a) identify where the UK COVID-19 inquiry is not able to fully scrutinise the response of the Welsh Government and Welsh public bodies to the COVID pandemic, and (b) to undertake an inquiry into the areas identified. And I would like to try and avoid conflating two issues today. There is the subject of our motion—the special purpose committee—and also, secondly, the view that Welsh Government should have allowed a Wales-wide specific inquiry. And whilst I don't want to conflate the two, I think it's important that we set some context as to why we, as Welsh Conservatives, have tabled this motion today. The Government has continually denied the request for a Wales-wide inquiry, and they have done so in the knowledge that half the Members of this Chamber believe that there should be a Wales-wide specific inquiry. So do many health bodies and professionals across Wales as well and, most importantly, of course, the Bereaved Families for Justice Cymru group, representing many of the people who have died in Wales from COVID-19.

Now, I have no doubt that the UK COVID inquiry will do their job at scrutinising the UK Government and its actions, but now we've seen the blueprint, we know that the inquiry cannot fully scrutinise the Welsh Government. We know this because, just this month, Baroness Hallet, who is leading the UK inquiry, has stressed the inquiry would not be covering every issue in Wales. That's what she said—the inquiry would not be covering every issue in Wales. And speaking at the inquiry press conference, she went on to say that,

'we will try to ensure that we cover all the most significant and important issues' but,

'we can't cover every issue, we cannot cover, or call every witness, we are going to have to focus on the most significant and the most important decisions.'

And we also know, a month into the lockdown, the First Minister said,

'We will do the right thing for Wales at the time that it is right for Wales and we won’t be doing that by looking over our shoulders at what others are doing.'