Covid inquiry: Wales powers illogical says Matt Hancock

Different rules to tackle Covid-19 applied within the UK during the pandemic

Powers to handle infectious disease outbreaks should sit with UK ministers, and not Welsh ones, England's former health secretary Matt Hancock has said.

Mr Hancock told the Covid inquiry that the Welsh border in particular "doesn't stop human interaction at all".

He argued that devolving powers during such emergencies to governments in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland was neither "necessary" nor "logical".

The Welsh government has said it will not comment on inquiry proceedings.

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Mr Hancock was answering questions from barrister Bethan Harris, on behalf of the Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice Cymru group, about what the UK government had called a "four nations" approach to the pandemic.

Mr Hancock said that "communication and coordination" between the nations of the UK was "important and I enjoyed, and I mean that literally, I enjoyed the relationship that I had with the other three health secretaries of the devolved nations".

"We had a weekly call that I instituted in March 2020, and it became a bit like a therapy session, frankly, because all four of us were facing very significant challenges," he said.

But he added: "I still don't think for the future that it is necessary to have, or logical to have, devolved powers for handling communicable diseases, because the administrative boundaries, particularly the Welsh border, doesn't stop human interaction at all.

"The Welsh border roads meander into England and Wales, you only have to go to Chester Football Club where the entrance was in one country and the stadium was in the other."

Matt Hancock said there had been a warm relationship between the health ministers around the UK

Mr Hancock was health secretary from 2018 until June 2021, when he resigned after breaching Covid guidance.

The Welsh government has said it will not be giving responses to the media to Covid inquiry witness statements, bit it "continues to "engage fully with the inquiry to ensure all actions and decisions are fully and properly scrutinised".

On Thursday, Mr Hancock told the inquiry that entering lockdown three weeks earlier would have cut deaths in the first Covid wave by 90%.

In his testimony on Tuesday, senior UK minister Michael Gove denied that the Welsh government, and other devolved administrations, were kept out of the loop during a crucial stage of Covid.

He said that there had been a "good" level of engagement with Welsh ministers, but not the level of predictability First Minister Mark Drakeford had wanted.