Meeting of the Parliament (Virtual) 23 July 2020
I thank the cabinet secretary for advance sight of his statement. Given the progress that we have made in tackling Covid-19, the question that many people still have is: what scientific trigger is the Government waiting for to give the green light to reopen schools fully? We could do that today and end the uncertainty. Pubs, restaurants, churches and even the tourism sector have all reopened. We know that children are at least risk of anyone in the country from Covid-19. Surely the balance of evidence is overwhelmingly in favour of schools reopening next month. I can see that and the public can see that, but we still have a refusal today to commit to schools reopening in just three short weeks.
I have three additional questions. First, I think that the cabinet secretary again used the phrase “a phased return”. Can he tell us how many of our 32 local authorities have indicated that they will be reopening schools fully to all pupils in the week commencing 11 August? If the answer is anything less than all of them, parents have a right to know when their children are going back to school.
Secondly, if there are localised clusters of Covid outbreaks, can the cabinet secretary confirm that those would be dealt with on a school-by-school basis, rather than being addressed through a blanket closure of all schools across the country?
Finally, on the issue of funding, given that one council alone has stated that it would require £20 million to reopen its schools safely, does the cabinet secretary consider that the additional £20 million announced today for all local authorities will scratch the surface of what they need in order to reopen schools safely?