FM backs Gething for not reading pandemic plans

Mark Drakeford said ministers could not be expected to read a back catalogue of 15 years of documents

Mark Drakeford has defended his former health minister Vaughan Gething for not reading pandemic paperwork until he prepared for the Covid inquiry.

Mr Gething, now economy minister, admitted he had not read a number of plans and guidance, including a major report into a pandemic exercise called Cygnus.

The first minister argued ministers could not be expected to read a back catalogue of 15 years of documents and do their job.

Senedd Welsh Conservative leader Andrew RT Davies questioned how there could be confidence in Mr Gething in his current job.

Mr Gething was health minister from 2016 to 2021.

Operation Cygnus, a cross-government simulation of a pandemic outbreak, reported in July 2017.

Mr Gething told the inquiry that, looking back, "I think it is fair say that if I had put more ministerial time into this, then I may well have sped-up preparedness" for a pandemic.

Speaking in the Senedd on Tuesday, Mr Davies asked why the minister had not read the papers.

Mark Drakeford initially said he would not "offer a running commentary on the inquiry".

But he added: "All ministers when they become responsible for a new portfolio, receive an enormous amount of information from their civil servants.

"It summarises a huge amount of what they will need to know. It indicates to them where they will need to do further and more in-depth reading, and ministers follow that advice.

"Any suggestion that a minister could embark upon a back catalogue of documents produced over a period of 15 years and at the same time, discharge their everyday responsibilities, it simply does not reflect the way in which government is conducted in Wales or in any other part of the United Kingdom."

Vaughan Gething was health minister for five years, until May 2021

Mr Gething was health minister until shortly after the 2021 election, when he was moved to his current economy brief.

Following Mr Drakeford's defence, the leader of the Welsh Conservatives told the Senedd: "How can we have confidence that he's going to be able to deal with the economic picture that's unfolding here in Wales?

"For the third month running Wales has had the highest unemployment figures of any part of the United Kingdom."

Vaughan Gething was among the officials and ministers that spoke at the Covid inquiry last week.

Answering Mr Davies, the first minister accused the Conservatives of having "crashed the economy".

He said every part of the UK faces a future where the Bank of England has decided to "induce a recession in order to deal with the inflationary pressures his government has allowed to gather inside the UK economy".

He claimed the picture on employment figures was "mixed" , accusing Mr Davies of picking out figures that paint Wales in the "worst possible light".

He said figures showed employment rising in Wales last month, more rapidly than other parts of the UK, and that economic inactivity declined last month.