4. Submissions on Behalf of the Welsh Government by Mr Howells

Mr Howells: My Lady, bore da.

The Welsh Government is grateful to Counsel to the Inquiry, Mr Poole King’s Counsel, for acknowledging the significant efforts that the Welsh Government has made to comply with all requests made of it by the Inquiry. In addition to Module 2B, the Welsh Government is a core participant in five other modules. Few other governmental core participants have a similarly intense involvement in the Inquiry. That brings a very heavy workload, but the First Minister and the whole Welsh Government consider it to be vital that its decision-making in the pandemic, which affected everyone in Wales and every aspect of life in Wales, is examined, tested and judicially considered.

Given the scale of the response to the pandemic, fair and impartial scrutiny of the Welsh Government’s actions is necessary. It is for that reason that the First Minister, uniquely, volunteered to give evidence and to be examined in Module 2, so that you heard evidence from at least one other head of government about the operation and effectiveness of intergovernmental decision-making during the pandemic.

This is, we hope, a telling and practical example of the Welsh Government’s willingness to submit itself to scrutiny.

It may help those following today’s hearing to know the extent of the Welsh Government’s contribution to Module 2B’s work so far. It has provided over 75 statements in either final or draft form with a small balance to be provided imminently and certainly well before the start of the hearings next February. It has disclosed more than 24,000 documents to date, a significant volume of material, which includes documents that are relevant to the matters that your Ladyship will consider in Module 2B.

The Welsh Government will continue to meet its duty of disclosure and provide any further material that is sought, including all specific disclosure.

The materials which have already been provided to the Inquiry and future disclosure will include, but is not confined to, advice to ministers throughout the pandemic from January 2020 onwards and the supporting material which was provided with that advice, the scientific and other evidence which ministers considered when making decisions, relevant minutes, relevant email and other correspondence, and other material which explains and illustrates decision-making in Wales during the material time.

When the Welsh Government’s disclosure is provided to core participants, it is of course subject to the Inquiry’s procedures. Finally, in February and March next year, you will hear evidence from the Welsh Government including officials and ministers. Those witnesses will be examined by Counsel to the Inquiry on the basis of the materials that ministers relied upon in making decisions and officials in giving advice.

The Inquiry will receive the fullest co-operation from all those witnesses. WhatsApp and other similar forms of communication have featured prominently in recent hearings and in media coverage. In relation to Wales at least, you may conclude in your report that the high-profile coverage of WhatsApp messages was disproportionate to its true forensic value in examining or illustrating the Welsh Government’s decision-making. That, however, will be a matter for your Ladyship to decide in light of the whole body of evidence that will be adduced in Module 2B, of which WhatsApp communications are a minor and peripheral part.

At the end of September this year, the Inquiry and the Welsh Government agreed the approach to be adopted in relation to the appropriate management of WhatsApp and similar communications. Between 3 October this year and today, the Welsh Government has disclosed batches of WhatsApp, text message transcripts and screenshots to the Inquiry and will continue to do so. It should be borne in mind that the process of searching for these materials is time consuming, intensely demanding of limited resources, and, on occasion, technically problematic.

The Welsh Government has kept the Inquiry regularly informed about progress of the complex process of gathering WhatsApp and other communications from many individuals, some of whom have left office or no longer work for the Welsh Government. It will, of course, continue to do so.

Following discussions between the Welsh Government and the Inquiry about the substance and focus of the Inquiry’s requests, on 25 October this year the Inquiry asked some specific questions about WhatsApp communications which usefully distilled matters. The Welsh Government has provided a comprehensive response to that request by the deadline of 8 December.

My Lady, finally, may I thank again Counsel to the Inquiry, Mr Poole King’s Counsel, and his team for their positive, practical and constructive approach throughout their work in Module 2B. Although we may not always agree, the Module 2B team has been consistently courteous, appropriately demanding and always rigorous in carrying out their investigation, a balance which is not always easy to find or to maintain and to do so fairly.

My Lady, unless there are any other matters, those are my submissions.

Lady Hallett: Thank you very much indeed, Mr Howells, very grateful.

Mr Poole, anything to conclude?