Wales' approach to Covid pandemic better than England's, Drakeford tells inquiry

FORMER First Minister Mark Drakeford has insisted the way his Welsh Government handled key decision-making in Wales during the Covid-19 pandemic was better than how similar issues were dealt with by the UK Government.

- By ROBERT HARRIES Reporter

Both Mr Drakeford and former health secretary Vaughan Gething gave evidence at UK Covid-19 Inquiry hearing in London yesterday.

This week's hearings represent the seventh of 10 modules of the inquiry and are looking at the approach of the UK Government and devolved nations to testing, tracing, and isolation adopted during the pandemic.

The hearings this week are being held at Dorland House in London between Monday, May 19, and Thursday, May 22. As well as expert witnesses and treasury officials, the inquiry will also hear from decision makers at the time of the Covid-19 pandemic, including those from the Senedd, the Northern Ireland Assembly, and Westminster.

Yesterday, Mr Drakeford and Mr Gething, also a former First Minister, but who was health minister at the time of the pandemic, answered questions.

Mr Drakeford told the inquiry: “I think there is a general difference in approach between the way UK ministers made decisions and the way Welsh ministers made decisions for Wales. In my experience, the approach in England was to announce first and then plan.

“So you can announce that something is going to happen, but if you don’t have a plan for making it happen, it actually doesn’t happen.

“In Wales, we took the opposite approach - we planned first, and then we announced, and sometimes that makes us look like we are later [at] doing things than was happening elsewhere, but I believe that our method was more effective, it delivered better on the ground, and it certainly, I think, explains why there were higher levels of trust in Wales between decision-makers and those affected by them.”

Mr Drakeford also told the inquiry it was important that people in Wales were notified of a need to self-isolate by someone with a knowledge of their local area and/or language.

“One of the key reasons it was decided why we would have our own system is because of language,” he said.