Ken Skates: Can I thank the Member for her questions and say I’m very familiar with Tarmac in Hendre? I believe that it was formerly the Lloyd quarry—the Lloyd family of Pantymwyn. I was particularly pleased to be able to join the Member yesterday at P&A fencing in Mold to learn of their plans to more than double the number of employees that they have, in part off the back of providing fencing for...
Ken Skates: Diolch, Lywydd. On 20 September, the First Minister published our programme for government for the next five years, giving our commitment to continuing to build a united and connected society. To help realise this ambition, we have committed to the delivery of a multimodal integrated transport system for the whole of Wales, including the south and north Wales metros, which will act as the...
Ken Skates: I’d like to thank Russell George for his questions, and also for welcoming the five-point plan. This is a plan that’s been devised with partners in local government and within the industry itself. It contains a number of actions that will shore up the industry in the short term as we look at the long-term opportunities presented through the transfer of powers in the Wales Bill. In terms...
Ken Skates: Can I thank Dai Lloyd for his question and also for making enquiries regarding the important service between Aberystwyth and Cardiff, along with other Members, including the Presiding Officer? This is an essential service and its loss was severely regretted. I’m pleased to be able to say that alternative arrangements for this particular bus service are now at an advanced stage, and we...
Ken Skates: Can I thank the Member for his kind words and questions? In the fourth Assembly I recall, when I was on the back benches and a member of the enterprise committee, the question of integrated ticketing and integrated travel occupied a considerable amount of our time. I know that it created a good degree of frustration amongst Members. Much of that frustration still exists, but we are now at the...
Ken Skates: I’d like to thank the Member for her questions and very much endorse what she said, not least about the importance of Bus Users Cymru and of the need for Network Rail to ensure that the upgrades, which are long overdue, to Cardiff railway station are appropriate and ensure that there is a seamless, safe passenger journey from the railway station to the bus station. In terms of congestion...
Ken Skates: I'd like to thank Jenny Rathbone for her questions. I do believe that research and development in terms of green buses is not just an opportunity for us to lower or reduce our carbon footprint—research and development also offers us a huge economic opportunity, due to the fact that it is still an industry that is in its relative infancy. We still do not see across much of western Europe the...
Ken Skates: The green bus fund, which was the fund mentioned by the Member, was, of course, open to bus providers and operators in Wales. Regretfully, no Welsh companies were successful in bidding, and no local authorities were successful in bidding. I am personally open to considering, however, a case for establishing a green bus fund in Wales, but within, of course, I have to say, a context of...
Ken Skates: Main Port Engineering was awarded £650,000 from the Welsh economic growth fund in March 2015. The funding was granted to assist with a capital investment of £1.627 million for a new purpose-built facility in the Haven Waterway enterprise zone. The terms and conditions linked to this support were fully met at the time by the company. The company entered administration following a winding-up...
Ken Skates: I’d like to thank the Member for her questions, and share the concern that is being expressed insofar as the future of the employees of the company is concerned. MPE employed 157 people in total, and, unfortunately, 69 of those have been made redundant. The Member is right that a significant number—I believe it to be 84—are to be retained at the Valero refinery to provide continuity of...
Ken Skates: I'd like to thank the Member for her comments and, again, I share her concerns for those families who are facing considerable anxiety at this moment in time. I can say that my officials are in close dialogue with PwC and are aware that there is some developing interest in the Main Port business and, potentially, the remaining employees. So, all is not yet lost, and we will do everything we...
Ken Skates: Can I thank the Member for his questions? In terms of the clawback, it will depend on where we stand vis-à-vis other debtors. So, we are trying to assess exactly where we are positioned in that regard.
Ken Skates: Or HMRC takes it all. I think he’s absolutely right in that, relatively speaking, this is significant, the Haven area, and therefore, and especially given what my colleague Joyce Watson said about the value of employment at the site, it’s absolutely essential that we look at a bespoke response to this. For that reason, I am going to be meeting with the chair of the enterprise zone and the...
Ken Skates: I thank Neil Hamilton for his questions. As I said to the local Member, the questions asked of HMRC are those that I have already raised. I wouldn’t, however, wish to reach a conclusion or to judge whether HMRC have behaved in a responsible way, and whether the action taken by HMRC was proportionate to the level of debt. I would prefer to have all of the evidence and all of the details to...
Ken Skates: We welcome the decision to build a third runway at Heathrow, which will benefit Welsh passengers, bring tourists to Wales, help our exporters reach new markets and create jobs.
Ken Skates: In terms of the expansion of Heathrow Airport, it could bring more than £6 billion to the Welsh economy and help create more than 8,000 jobs, so it’s a major piece of infrastructure that will benefit our country. I do recognise that Scotland have an MOU in place with Heathrow Airport. My officials are discussing a memorandum of understanding with Heathrow, but it will be different to that...
Ken Skates: Well, I’m pretty surprised by the Member’s attitude on this issue, given that he could surely have been saying more regarding the big infrastructure projects that I outlined in my answer to Simon Thomas, especially concerning the western rail link to Heathrow, which should be delivered, which I would hope he would call on the UK Government to deliver, including the electrification of the...
Ken Skates: The Member would be right if it wasn’t for the fact that so many people from Wales actually use Heathrow Airport, and regardless of the success of Cardiff Airport, Cardiff Airport will never compete as an international hub with Heathrow. Cardiff can, however, act as a complementary airport for Heathrow, and that’s what the chair of the airport, Roger Lewis, has spoken about on a number of...
Ken Skates: Yesterday’s decision was extremely disappointing, and our thoughts are clearly with the workers there and their families. We will be working with the directors and management at the abattoir facility, with a view to being able to minimise the impact that the decision has on the premises and any resultant job losses. Further discussions will be held with directors of the wider group in order...
Ken Skates: Yes, I can and I will, of course, meet with the company along with Dawn Bowden and the First Minister, and I’ll also be liaising closely with my colleague the Cabinet Secretary for environment and natural resources in an attempt to ensure that our response is across several departments. The announcement gives, I think, very significant cause for concern for those staff who are working in...
