Covid: No Senedd vote allowed before pub alcohol ban

Mark Drakeford says the rules will save 'hundreds and hundreds" of lives

Ministers have been accused of showing "disrespect" to the Welsh Parliament because its members will not get a chance to vote on the latest coronavirus restrictions before pubs have to stop serving alcohol.

An opposition request for a debate was denied by the Senedd's presiding officer

Elin Jones said a vote would be held in the chamber next Tuesday.

Laws banning alcohol in pubs and restaurants are due to start on Friday.

Hospitality venues will also have to close at 18:00 every night when the law changes on Friday.

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The Welsh Government is facing calls to produce more evidence to support the restrictions, including from its own backbenches.

Ms Jones said MSs would be able to table amendments to a Welsh Government debate at the next full meeting of the Senedd on Tuesday.

That meant "the Senedd has the opportunity therefore to debate and vote on the matter during the next plenary session", she said.

Conservative health spokesman Andrew RT Davies said he understood the presiding officer's "balancing act", but that it was "a missed opportunity".

He said: "We are a parliament. We are parliamentarians. If we are to be taken seriously we should have the opportunity to debate the issue and represent the people who put us here.

"I am grateful for your consideration presiding officer and I think it is the government that has missed the opportunity here and has in this particular instance, in my opinion, shown disrespect to the Welsh Parliament."

Plaid Cymru MS Sian Gwenllian asked whether more pressure could be put on the government to hold a vote on the principle behind the regulations before they come into force on Friday.

"The changes happening on Friday are significant and we also need to see the evidence that has led to their introduction," she said.

Defending the alcohol decision on Tuesday, Mr Drakeford said without the rules "hundreds and hundreds of people in Wales who otherwise would have been alive will not be alive in 2021".

'Economic madness'

Earlier, Wetherspoon chairman Tim Martin said his chain would close its pubs in Wales from Friday, as staying open but only selling food had been "ruinously expensive" when tried in Scotland.

He told BBC Radio Wales the rules had been made by "people who have never run a business".

"This new puritanism in Wales and elsewhere is madness, is economic madness," he said.

"I don't want to wind the Welsh up by criticising their first minister, but he's talking cobblers.

"There's very good evidence that lockdowns - and this is a type of lockdown, it's a quasi-lockdown - simply don't work...

"This scare tactic saying so many people are going to die is nonsense in my opinion."

'Frustrating'

Enzo Nigro says he was not expecting a ban on serving alcohol

Enzo Nigro, the owner of Potters pub in Newport, said he was concerned by the new rules.

"We had 70 to 80 emails come through 10 minutes after the announcement, and everyone was wondering what was going on," he said.

"People don't really understand the rules because they thought we would be able to serve alcohol until 6 o'clock and not no alcohol at all.

"It's frustrating."

Conservatives say the rules are "completely disproportionate" in parts of Wales where the rate of infection is comparatively low.

Plaid Cymru, which has backed most of the Welsh Government's restriction during the pandemic, has said ministers should find a "sensible compromise" that allows alcohol to be served until 19:00, with closing time an hour later.

Mandy Jones, of the Independent Alliance for Reform in the Senedd, said a petition started by former MEP Nathan Gill "shows that the public also agree with us in demanding that the Welsh Government publish the science they've used to justify this claim".

The petition showed more than 18,500 signatures on Wednesday evening.

Pubs, bars and restaurants in Wales will not be able to serve alcohol on the premises and they will have to close at 18:00. Only takeaway alcohol will be allowed when the new rules kick in on Friday.

On Tuesday, Mr Drakeford pointed out that up to four people from different households will still be able to meet in bars and cafes, but without alcohol.

"Now I am sorry that is a significant deprivation for many people," he said.

"But the evidence is that when people drink then their behaviour changes and their behaviour changes in ways that make them and other people more vulnerable to the virus."

Without further action, he said modelling suggested between 1,000 and 1,700 more deaths would occur this winter.

Mr Drakeford also said his government was publishing more information than any other administration in the UK.

Incident management teams had "repeatedly" highlighted problems with alcohol and hospitality venues in outbreaks, he added.

The boss of Brains, the biggest Welsh-owned brewery, has called the new alcohol rules "closure by stealth" and announced more than 100 managed pubs will be closed from Friday.

Brains data shared with BBC Wales shows between July and the end of November it served more than 850,000 customers at the 100 pubs it manages and had five inquiries from the Test, Trace, Protect scheme.

Chief executive Alistair Darby said it was hard "to believe that the latest restrictions which will force the closure of all of our managed pubs will do much to reduce transmission of the virus".

The company said three of its pubs were temporarily closed and deep cleaned after staff tested positive for coronavirus.

A new tougher tier system of coronavirus restrictions for England began on Wednesday, as the country emerged from its lockdown, after the plan was approved by MPs, despite a major rebellion on the Tory benches.

Under the highest, tier three, all hospitality venues must stay closed, except for delivery and takeaway services.