CALLS for a Wales Specific Covid Inquiry to be established have been renewed as the UK enquiry begins discussing the pandemic’s affect on Wales.

Ahead of the UK Covid Inquiry’s Welsh chapter, which is due to begin next week, Plaid Cymru has tabled a debate in the Senedd calling on the Welsh Government to establish an inquiry in order to be accountable for its decisions.

On the first day of the UK Covid Inquiry, the chair, Baroness Hallet, said in reference to the calls for scrutiny of decisions made in Wales throughout the pandemic that it “can’t cover every issue, we cannot cover, or call every witness, we are going to have to focus on the most significant and the most important decisions.”

Baroness Hallet also indicated that it would still be possible for a Wales-specific inquiry, saying: “If a Wales enquiry is set up, I will work with them and cooperate to the best of my ability to ensure that between us we cover all the issues that people of Wales would wish to see covered.”

Plaid Cymru has long criticised the response of the Labour Welsh Government to calls for scrutiny on its handling of the Covid Pandemic in Wales.

Both Mark Drakeford, the First Minister, as well as the former Health Minister and Leadership Candidate, Vaughan Gething, have consistently denied calls to establish an inquiry, with all Labour MSs in the Senedd following suit.

The party’s Health and Social Care spokesperson, and Dwyfor Meirionnydd MS Mabon ap Gwynfor called on the Welsh Government once again to establish a Wales Inquiry.

“As the UK Covid inquiry makes a pit stop in Wales for a few weeks, we can already see that decisions that were made in Wales will not get addressed to the degree that is needed or expected by the Welsh public,” he said.

“There will be so many aspects that will not be covered in terms of Welsh decision making – good and bad.

“It remains to be seen how much depth it will go into, but the chair has already said, quite plainly, that there simply won’t be time to go into the depth that is expected by the Welsh public and our institutions.

“Our administrative services need to understand whether the decisions that affected their work were correct.

The Welsh Government must be held accountable for these decisions, good and bad. It’s true to say that a failure to establish a Wales-specific Covid inquiry undermines devolution. The way that the Labour government are dodging scrutiny is truly scandalous.”