UK Covid inquiry: 'Sloth-like' pandemic response in Wales

A barrister for bereaved families at the Covid inquiry in Cardiff has called for all Welsh government WhatsApps during the pandemic to be published.

Counsel from several key organisations made closing speeches, as three weeks of hearings in Wales came to an end.

The Welsh government was accused of a "sloth-like urgency" in its early response to the pandemic in early 2020.

It said it gave a "reasonable response to the unprecedented challenge to civil society".

Kirsten Heaven, counsel for the Covid-19 Bereaved Families Cymru, said the Welsh government had shirked a granular inspection of Welsh decision-making, by refusing a Wales-only inquiry.

She said it sought to deflect blame by insisting decision making wasn't made on WhatsApp, but she said government communications during an emergency were deleted.

"We invite the inquiry to publish all the WhatsApps so the Welsh people can see what their government was using informal messaging for," she said.

It had refused to accept failures, over mass gatherings, testing in care homes and face coverings, she said.

Ms Heaven said there was a "passive, slow and disjointed" early response to the pandemic, and then the Welsh government responded with "sloth-like urgency," despite the work on the threat by Public Health Wales.

Wales lacked "national strategic leadership", she added.

On PPE, work on supply only started in mid-February and problems continued well into April.

It was slow to ban mass gatherings, which would have reduced deaths, with the government "clinging desperately" to a lack of SAGE advice, Ms Heaven said.

On care homes, Welsh government recklessness exposed residents to Covid, when it forced homes to accept residents [from hospitals] who had the virus, she added.

On asymptomatic transmission, the Welsh government "should and could" have adopted a precautionary approach, with Ms Heaven accusing health minister Vaughan Gething of lagging behind the UK Government and "sitting back and waiting" over the evidence.

Divergence on rules over wearing of face coverings left the public "mystified," with leadership absent.

She said the "dedicated and professional" Swansea University modelling team did their absolute best, working for free in the evenings to "fill the void" left by the Welsh government's "woeful planning failures."

Danny Friedman KC, representing Disability Wales, said the Welsh government system of civil contingency was not resilient during the pandemic.

He said the "small state quality" of Wales had both possibilities and challenges.

There were examples of disabled people's organisations meeting deputy minister Jane Hutt, which started early in the pandemic.

But despite Wales' size there was not always joined-up thinking.

The problem for Wales was it was too small both in terms of the power it held and the capacity it had to do things differently, and being taken for granted by the UK Government, he said.

Mr Friedman said it could have gone sooner and longer for an October firebreak but "stumbled in political and economic headwinds" which made it cautious about acting.

He also criticised health and social data collection around disabled people, while disability rights were "not embedded in real time decision-making" in the likes of emergency planning.

Adam Straw KC on behalf of John's Campaignand Care Rights UK said care home residents were "often overlooked" and there were many cases when they were neglected.

On discharge from hospitals into care homes, he said the government was well aware of concerns and these were not acted upon.

He said only a tiny proportion of available tests would have been required, while PPE stocks were "woefully inadequate".

There was also a "data chasm" for deaths in social care and an "implementation gap" on what was delivered on the ground and lack of coordination among local authorities.

Mr Straw said there was conflicting, contradictory and confusing guidance, which would have benefited from an specific individual in government responsible for overseeing it and communicating it.

Isolation from visits from loved ones also caused serious harm, while social care was seen as secondary compared to the NHS and unpaid carers were also neglected, he said.

There were concerns about ageism and lack of equality assessments in the pandemic response.

David Gardner, counsel for the Children's Commissioner for Wales, said there was a lack of proactivity during the pandemic and a lack of early planning, while the voices of children were not considered.

The decision to close schools was taken on 18 March without any legal advice, he said.

This was in contrast no decision to close footpaths and businesses, where legal advice was taken.

Mr Gardner said children's rights impact assessments (CRIA) were often late or applied retrospectively. They were not completed at the time, ahead of major decisions including the first closure of schools and the use of facemasks in class.

There were also impact issues for children over the digital divide, access to online learning for disabled pupils and the safety and well being of children, where school was a haven.

Sam Jacobs, representing the Wales TUC, said "lack of access" to PPE and guidance around it was an issue although progress was eventually made.

He said there were also a narrative that saw care workers as only vectors for carrying the virus but he said the question was what should have been done about it.

Mr Jacobs asked why so many were in insecure work, working across several homes, what could have been done to restrict that and for providing better PPE.

He said support for self-isolation came later in Wales than in England, and Wales TUC did not accept that lessons could not be learnt from other countries in this area.

Robin Allen KC, for the Welsh Local Government Association, said while there was good strategic engagement with ministers, it wasn't always reflected at an official level.

He said a better and earlier engagement was needed in future and the need for trust in local government.

Neither civil contingencies and public health legislation were designed for a long and protracted emergency, like a pandemic, so recommendations were needed to fill that void.

Andrew Kinnier KC, counsel for the Welsh government, said ministers recommended decisions that changed people's lives and livelihoods.

He said there was a recognition that there were some policies - such as local lockdowns - that did not work as they had hoped but they were worthwhile measures worth taking.

"The decisions made by the Welsh government are to be judged by what was known at the time, about the nature of the virus and in circumstances were swift action and hard decisions were necessary to protect the people of Wales," he said.

He said the Welsh government's decisions were a "reasonable response to the unprecedented challenge to civil society".

There was no single right answer and no decision was free from consequence.

Mr Kinnier told the inquiry there were many balancing decisions which had to be made.

There was no way Wales could seal itself off from the wider world, waiting for a vaccine.