8. Welsh Conservatives Debate: Wales COVID-19 inquiry special purpose committee

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 6:10 pm on 30 November 2022.

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Photo of Andrew RT Davies Andrew RT Davies Conservative 6:10, 30 November 2022

Thank you, Presiding Officer, and I'd like to thank everyone who's contributed to the debate this afternoon. A debate was tabled not because we lack faith in the UK inquiry—we do not—and that has been echoed by many speakers today, that the UK inquiry is an important vehicle for us to understand how decisions were taken, to test those decisions and to come to a conclusion on the outcomes of those decisions.

And on that point, I agree with the First Minister that the UK inquiry is an important vehicle that the Welsh Government and, indeed, others within Wales need to engage with. But, as the Scottish Government has highlighted, it is possible to run a Scottish-specific inquiry in parallel with the UK-wide inquiry to get to the nub of this here, which is things were done differently in Wales, as they were done in Scotland.

We do need, as speaker after speaker emphasised, a separate inquiry route, and, in this case, the motion seeks permission for the Welsh Parliament to form that special purpose vehicle. Surely, that's what we should be doing as parliamentarians: looking at the most momentous decisions, as other speakers have touched on, that have ever been taken by a Welsh Government and Welsh civic society. 

This isn't about deflecting from the UK Government and some of the decisions they've taken, as the Member for North Wales on the Labour benches highlighted; the UK Government do need to be held to account, and ultimately look at decisions that were good and bad, quite rightly so. But, as we've heard from the chair of the UK-wide inquiry, there are areas of the inquiry that they will not be able to look at as closely as they would like on Welsh decision making.

When you look at the structures in Wales here, local government is quite different from local government in England. We have unitary authorities across the whole of Wales. They were important partners in delivering some of the Welsh Government's decisions and support measures that were put in place in social care, for example, and in education. The health service is structured quite differently in Wales, because of decisions that the Welsh Government have taken, to how it is structured in England. 

Those are unique positions that are taken here in Wales that we need a Welsh decision to look at, and that decision needs to be taken here this evening, ultimately to give empowerment to a committee to be formed by the Welsh Parliament. If we as parliamentarians cannot form a committee to look at these issues and report in a timely manner before the 2026 election, then what is the point of having a Welsh Parliament? That surely is the fundamental question here. If this is voted down and the Government use their Government votes to vote that down—. 

And I implore the Labour backbench to consider that. As parliamentarians, you are being asked to vote down the ability to have a committee that would be in the control of Parliament, not a political party, in the control of Parliament—[Interruption.]—in the control of Parliament, not to defer—. [Interruption.] I've run out of time, sorry, Alun. I'll happily take the intervention, but—[Inaudible.]