A call for a special committee to look at the Welsh Government’s response to Covid-19.
The Leader of the Opposition in the Welsh Parliament, Paul Davies MS, has written to the Welsh Parliament’s Presiding Officer asking her to explore the formation of a special committee to look at the Welsh Government’s response to Covid-19.
The temporary committee would scrutinise and report on Welsh Ministers’ use of ministerial powers under the Coronavirus Act and the Health Protection (Coronavirus) (Wales) Regulations which have been put in place.
As part of Paul Davies’ proposals, the Committee would also scrutinise key strategic options and issues which cut across different sectors, such as:
- the Welsh Government’s strategy and delivery of the process to lift the Covid-19 restrictions, and what steps the Welsh Government will be taking to ensure a swift recovery for Wales from the pandemic
- the decision-making process within Wales to tackle Covid-19, in particular the collection of data around Covid-19 throughout Wales and the scientific evidence to support decisions
- the affect of different policy proposals by governments across the UK during the pandemic.
Commenting on the proposal, Paul Davies MS, said:
“It is essential that Members of the Welsh Parliament are able to fully scrutinise the actions of the Welsh Government, especially with the increase in ministerial powers that they currently have. I’ve previously raised concerns about the lack of scrutiny of the Welsh Government at this time, with slow and incomplete responses from Welsh Ministers to Welsh Parliament Members.
“This Committee would be able to dedicate its time to focus on the issues that matter, such as Welsh Government failures to keep an accurate total of those who have sadly died or on building the testing capacity that we need to ensure lockdown restrictions can be lifted.
“I hope all Members of the Welsh Parliament can support this proposal.”
