Covid: First minister defends Wales' pandemic powers

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

The first minister has rejected calls from a former UK government health secretary to take pandemic powers away from Welsh ministers.

Matt Hancock said the Welsh border "doesn't stop human interaction".

But Mark Drakeford said the Covid inquiry had "hardly" been an advert for giving more powers to the UK government.

He said the recent hearings had been a "series of shameful revelations".

It will be the turn of former Prime Minister Boris Johnson to give evidence on his handling of the pandemic later this week.

Mr Drakeford and his ministers are due to give evidence again next year when the inquiry holds a section into decision making in Wales.

Last week Mr Hancock told the public hearing that, while he had enjoyed the relationship he had with the three other health ministers of Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, "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".

As the UK government health secretary, Mr Hancock only had jurisdiction over England.

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Speaking to BBC Wales at a Resolution Foundation conference in London, the first minister said he did not agree with Mr Hancock.

"Anybody who has listened to the state of play inside the UK government during the Covid inquiry will hardly think that they are an advert for taking more powers into their own hands," he said.

"The last few weeks have been a series of shameful revelations about the way in which business was conducted within the UK government.

"I hope that when the inquiry turns to Wales, there will be a different story to tell and that will explain why making decisions closer to people, with a better grasp of people's needs and how you respond to them, that is the way to organise things in the future."

The Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice Cymru group, which is taking part in the inquiry, questioned why Wales was later than England in taking some decisions during the pandemic, such as in testing those discharged to care homes.

"We look forward to discovering 'the Welsh science' that led to these delayed decisions," it said.

Throughout the pandemic the Welsh government was able to take its own decisions on Covid restrictions.

This was because of the legislation that UK ministers had chosen to use, which required counterparts in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland to apply their own versions of the same restrictions.

While at the start the rules were largely the same across the four nations they diverged as time went on.

Last year Mr Drakeford said he had thought at the start of the pandemic that the UK government "was more likely to rely on legislation, which is dealing with an emergency legislation, which is UK-wide".

In 2020 the Financial Times reported that Mr Drakeford had also been "surprised" that Westminster had left Wales will the power to diverge on Covid travel restrictions.