Does the Welsh Government support the call for an independent public inquiry into the disproportionate impact of coronavirus on BAME communities?
I share the concerns raised regarding the disproportionate impact coronavirus is having on Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) communities.
In recognition of the urgent need for an investigation, the First Minister established an advisory group to understand what the factors involved might be. It is working with stakeholders from BAME communities and expert advisers within Wales and across the UK, including Public Health England, to share information and options to address this issue. Two subgroups are considering the wider socio-economic factors and issues for the workforce around risk assessment.
As this work progresses at pace and recommendations are made to the First Minister, consideration will also need to be given to any measures required specifically for the BAME community. Any recommendations will form part of the wider discussions we are now beginning to have more generally around easing the measures, while balancing this against suppressing a resurgence of the virus. I expect the advisory group to consider this specific issue as it looks at the evidence and the contributory factors and shares its advice to help ensure lives are protected.
I want efforts to be focused on what needs to be done now, as well as in the longer-term with actions implemented to reduce the transmission of this virus to help prevent further loss of life. A public inquiry is not something the government is considering.
In terms of the number of deaths within the BAME community, Public Health Wales has recently made available to health boards an enhanced reporting form as part of its rapid mortality surveillance system, which will allow information about ethnicity to be collected as part of its death notification process.
We are also working with Swansea University to consider how we can use the Secure Anonymised Information Linkage (SAIL) databank to link different datasets together to develop a better understanding of Covid-19 deaths and cases by ethnicity.
ONS has recently published mortality figures by ethnicity. Due to the numbers of deaths involved in Wales they were not able to produce this analysis for Wales specifically.