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Wales-Specific Covid-19 Review

Is this devolved to Wales?

Where is this happening?

What's happening?

Why is this happening?

Who has been affected?

What's happening?

Why is this happening?

Who has been affected?

Charts (if needed)

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£ 1.5 million Initial Budget set by the Welsh Government

Who has raised this at the Senedd?

Dr Dafydd Trystan MS

Government Effectiveness Minister

Rhun ap Iorwerth MS

First Minister

Nick Carter MS

Backbencher

Helen Jenner MS

Leader of the Opposition

Ben McKenna MS

Shadow Health Minister

Iain McIntosh MS

Shadow Government Efficiency Minister

Ken Skates MS

Labour Group Leader

Natasha Asghar MS

Backbencher

Andrew RT Davies MS

Senedd Commissioner

Anthony Slaughter MS

Backbencher

Jane Dodds MS

Backbencher

Dr Dafydd Trystan MS

Government Effectiveness Minister

Rhun ap Iorwerth MS

First Minister

Nick Carter MS

Backbencher

Helen Jenner MS

Leader of the Opposition

Ben McKenna MS

Shadow Health Minister

Iain McIntosh MS

Shadow Government Efficiency Minister

Ken Skates MS

Labour Group Leader

Natasha Asghar MS

Backbencher

Andrew RT Davies MS

Senedd Commissioner

Anthony Slaughter MS

Backbencher

Jane Dodds MS

Backbencher

What are the party positions on this?

The response from Plaid Cymru’s backbenchers has been limited, but what has been said backs the Welsh Government’s review approach over a full inquiry.

After six years and three different Labour First Ministers, your announcement that Wales will finally have our own focused COVID review marks real progress. The ongoing UK inquiry started four years ago, but it has been criticised for minimal scrutiny of Welsh decision makers.....There is also concern that the UK inquiry has failed to properly consider the impact on young people on so many different levels, especially the most disadvantaged.

Reform UK believe Plaid Cymru have broken promises made to campaigners to hold a full inquiry and believe a review would not delve deep enough into decisions made during the pandemic.

You've (First Minister) stood in this Chamber and been on the airwaves to argue that Wales needs its own specific COVID inquiry. You criticised the then Labour Government for resisting scrutiny and said the families deserved answers. Your party repeated that commitment in your 2024 general election manifesto. In March this year, your Trefnydd privately reassured one of the bereaved families campaigners that there would be no rolling back on that commitment...And on 20 March, just seven weeks before the Senedd election, your now health Minister confirmed to BBC Wales that witnesses would be compelled to give evidence under oath.

This review is a broken promise, and it's a pale imitation of the accountability that the people of Wales were led to expect. Plaid Cymru spent years demanding a fully-fledged, Wales-specific COVID inquiry, with the powers to compel evidence. And instead, they have chosen to undertake a non-statutory process that cannot require the attendance of witnesses, or compel evidence under oath. I understand, Minister, that you expect former Ministers and civil servants to participate, but you had the power to force them to, and you've chosen not to use it.

(Preparing for future pandemics) is important, but what about accountability for the decisions made during the last pandemic, because there are still some very serious questions that need to be answered? Why did the Welsh Government wait until 23 October 2020 to introduce the firebreak, despite receiving advice weeks earlier? Why were more than 1,000 patients reportedly discharged into Welsh care homes without being tested? Why were there delays in vaccinating some of our most vulnerable care home residents? And why did the Welsh Government have personal protective equipment stockpiles containing equipment that had expired years earlier?

Labour support the principle of a review as long as it doesn’t duplicate the work of the UK public inquiry; though they question why Plaid Cymru seemingly backtracked from holding a full inquiry.

The UK COVID inquiry has received thousands of pages of evidence from the Welsh Government and has heard extensive oral evidence from former Ministers and from civil servants, and importantly, that work is ongoing. It has not yet fully reported. I think it is important that the purpose, scope and intended outcomes of the Government's review are clearly understood. In particular, the Minister needs to be clear about how this work will complement the UK COVID inquiry and what additional lessons it's intended to identify for Wales.

The Conservatives believe Plaid Cymru have broken promises made to campaigners to hold a full inquiry and believe a review would not delve deep enough into decisions made during the pandemic because witnesses cannot be called to give evidence under oath.

What I find a particularly bitter pill to swallow is the fact that Plaid Cymru politicians have totally disrespected and strung along bereaved families. You have genuinely sold them down the river. It is no wonder the COVID bereaved families group—who, I must say, have been truly remarkable in every way in their campaigning—feel like they have had the rug pulled from underneath them. By not holding a statutory inquiry, I fear important questions will remain unanswered, Cabinet Minister.

Minister, I have a very high regard for you, but you've sold the COVID bereaved families out here. Your telling remark in answer to a question was that this is an inquiry. It's not an inquiry, it's a review. And you have sold out on what Minister after Minister who sit on that front bench now, when they were shadow spokespeople, were saying to the public, and to this Senedd, that you were going to come forward with a statutory inquiry that, ultimately, would have powers to compel witnesses.

Green MSs have expressed disappointment that there will be a review, not a full inquiry, and the decision lets down bereaved families and campaigners.

I do remain confused and disappointed by the Government's stated position this afternoon. After calling for a statutory Welsh inquiry for many years, like so many others, whilst in opposition, Plaid Cymru have now downgraded to a non-statutory review. Like others, I have met with representatives of the bereaved families and they do feel deeply let down by this decision. A non-statutory review risks unnecessary duplication of work already carried out by the UK inquiry whilst lacking the power to compel witnesses to provide evidence under oath.

Jane Dodds believes that campaigners who expected a full Wales-only inquiry deserve an apology from the Welsh Government.

I sat here in the last Senedd term hearing very clearly from both the current Cabinet Minister for health and the First Minister how important it was to have that independent inquiry. And I feel very sad that I haven't heard the word 'sorry' in your statement this afternoon: sorry that you've let down the families, sorry that you have to have another tack. Being honest, there are things that change, but the people who deserve to hear that you are very sorry are those families sitting in the gallery and those families affected.

Who is responsible?

Dr Dafydd Trystan MS

Government Effectiveness Minister

What have ministers said?

Today, I announce that an independent panel....will be established. Its main aim will be to assess whether Wales's capability to respond to a pandemic or a national emergency in the future is strengthened. It will assess whether lessons have been learnt and have led to practical improvements, and whether those improvements have taken root and are delivering the impacts needed, and whether we need to do more. Having read the most recent module 6 report from the UK COVID-19 inquiry, it is clear to me that much work remains to be done in order to ensure that the lessons for Wales are properly and thoroughly learnt.

Lived experience will be an important part of the work of the review in Wales. Alone, published and documentary evidence cannot show how changes are impacting communities, families and individuals. I will therefore ask the panel to consider how best to ensure that citizens' voices inform its work and help it to judge whether improvements are making a practical difference.

We were the first....to call for a COVID inquiry for Wales.... The reason we wanted that was not that we wanted a particular model of inquiry, but that we wanted answers to whatever it was that was emerging around us in those early days of COVID. We knew that this was of such a serious nature that we would want to make sure that we were prepared to face a pandemic in future, learning lessons....I'm not interested in a witch hunt, I'm not interested in particular models, I'm interested in the answers. And in the election and for a long time before the election, it is this model that I totally believe.

What's being done about this?

What do the Welsh Government want to do?

Does this need a new law or regulations?

How long will this take?

What do the Welsh Government want to do?

Does this need a new law or regulations?

How long will this take?

What have the Senedd's Committees said?

Nothing has been discussed yet.

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