3. Urgent Question: Main Port Engineering

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 3:25 pm on 1 November 2016.

Alert me about debates like this

Photo of Ken Skates Ken Skates Labour 3:25, 1 November 2016

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 leader of the council. It’s essential that we all co-ordinate our response to this and all collectively explore opportunities for employment for those affected.

In terms of the due diligence, well, undertaking due diligence is an important part of our process, and we continue to improve our approach and, indeed, learn lessons from individual cases. The Member is right to state that the decision was taken after 2014. However, the books showed that the company was in good health, and indeed the results were improving. However, I have asked my officials to report on whether a deep dive of the books was conducted. It is apparent and obvious that this has come as a major surprise to many people, and so I want to be reassured that the due diligence that was conducted was as thorough as I would wish it to be.