In the Assembly debate yesterday I said that local people would not have any trust in the outcome of any inquiry unless they saw those responsible taking the consequences of their actions or omissions. I will post my full speech up later, but the BBC has a summary of the debate, and quotes me as follows:
Labour's Leighton Andrews, AM for Rhondda, where many schools have been affected, said he could understand why families were considering legal action.
Mr Andrews said a "culture of accountability" was important and warned that people did not believe the outcome of inquiries "when people are not seen to take the rap".
Leighton Andrews: I welcome this debate. I state, once again, my sympathy for the families affected by this crisis. It is a serious situation—we believe that there are over 120 cases, which, from this one outbreak, is four times as many as we have had, on average, in any one year. It is affecting communities in my constituency.
I have spoken to all the schools affected in my constituency. I spoke to the first one 10 days ago, when news of the outbreak first became public. I have also spoken to some of the parents and grandparents affected, including one of the families worst affected. There is no question that the public wants the full facts to come out, and wants to know why this has occurred. I am sure that we all start from the position of wanting to know ourselves why this outbreak has occurred.
On behalf of a couple of the schools in my constituency, I would like to comment on some of the publicity surrounding this outbreak. Two of the headteachers of schools in my constituency have told me that their schools were named as being affected before the results of tests had confirmed cases of E.coli. That is worrying, as you will appreciate, for parents and teachers in those schools. One school told me that, understandably, children have been withdrawn from the schools meals service, even though the school does not take produce from the supplier that has been named in public. These things gather momentum in this context, and we have seen that happen over the last 10 days. However, there is no doubt about the concerns that exist.
I called for an inquiry last week, and wrote to the Minister to ask that there be an inquiry into this outbreak. I state again on record my thanks to the Minister for responding so positively, and I also thank the First Minister for stating that the inquiry will be open and transparent. That is important. I can well understand why the parents and grandparents of those affected may be considering legal action; that is very understandable. I suspect that there will need to be more information before any legal cases can be mounted. It is important that any inquiry can get the fullest evidence, and get answers quickly. That is what is of concern to the community. That is one reason why I had doubts about the old traditional kind of public inquiry and the difficulties that could result from that, as well as the difficulties—and it is a genuine concern—of a public inquiry running alongside legal cases. There are difficulties in those situations, and I think that people understand that; I do not believe that it is a great mark of division between us across the Chamber.
One thing that is important is that we have a culture of accountability in Wales. I do not want to prejudge the outcome of any inquiry, but one of the aspects of reassurance will be that if people have done things wrongly, whether they are in the private sector or public sector, they will be held to account for that, or for having failed to do things that they should have done. That is essential. The public does not believe in outcomes of inquiries where people are not seen to take the blame or the rap. It is important, in a new democratic Wales, that we have a culture of accountability. There are some key questions. One key question that I have raised throughout is the issue of the food supply chain into schools. Have the right inspections of suppliers been carried out at regular intervals? That is a key question. The national public health service and the environmental health officers have worked amazingly hard over the last 10 days to try to find the answers and reassure the public, and we should put on record our thanks for their work. I understand the point about local sourcing, but that is no good if the inspections are not carried out, which is clearly the final thing.
Finally, I have looked at the Pennington conclusions, of which there are a vast number. The ones on enforcement are ones that we must look at closely, but I agree with the leader of the opposition that we need to investigate whether all of those have been carried out. Today, it is important that we unite behind this and that this is seen as the whole Assembly coming together to say that this is an issue of serious concern in Wales, and that we are concerned and want answers.
