North Wales MS Mark Isherwood has welcomed confirmation from the Secretary of State for Wales this week that the UK Government has been in direct contact with the Welsh Government throughout the Covid-19 pandemic and continues to seek to work with them.
Contrary to the picture painted by the Welsh Government that the UK Government have not been engaging with them throughout this crisis, the Office of the Secretary of State for Wales have confirmed that there have actually been 103 engagements between the UK and Welsh Governments at Ministerial level since March, in addition to meetings between special advisers in the two Governments, and that not one meeting request from the Welsh Government has been declined by the UK Government.
Speaking in House of Commons proceedings yesterday, the Secretary of State for Wales, Simon Hart MP said “There have been unprecedented levels of engagement between the UK Government and the devolved administrations in responding to the Covid-19 pandemic.
“The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State and I have regular discussions with the First Minister - at present numbering over 100 such engagements - and his ministerial team including through COBR(M) and the Ministerial Implementation Groups. I have set out a schedule of the Ministerial engagement between my Office and the Welsh Government since the start of the crisis.”
The Secretary of State for Wales also wrote to the First Minister last Friday seeking a reciprocal arrangement and asking for a representative of his Office to be involved in the different bodies that the Welsh Government is setting up as we look to post-Covid recovery.
Backing his calls, Mr Isherwood said:
“There has clearly been a great deal of communication between the two Governments during this pandemic and for the Welsh Government to suggest otherwise raises serious questions at a time when we all need to be working together.
“The Secretary of State for Wales is keen for further joint working and I welcome his letter to the First Minister calling for this. The letter refers to the ‘unprecedented levels of engagement between our two Governments’ and states ‘I believe that in the spirit of continued cooperation between our two Governments, and to maintain a UK wide approach moving forward, it would be valuable if a representative from my office could attend the equivalent structures you have put in place in the Welsh Government. This could also include meetings of the Counsel General’s external advisory group on Wales’s recovery from the pandemic’.
“I fully back this call, and also his call, in a further letter to the First Minister this week, for ‘clarity on the ground as to the correct guidance people should follow in Wales and the reason for the approach taken in Wales’.
“There is much confusion in Wales since the First Minister announced his plan for exiting lockdown last Friday, and the people of Wales, and Police Forces across Wales, need to know what is and isn’t allowed.”
Meanwhile, Mr Isherwood praised the Secretary of State for Wales Office for approving, in a matter of hours, requests sent from the Welsh Government for military assistance during the Covid-19 pandemic.