[R] signifies the Member has declared an interest. [W] signifies that the question was tabled in Welsh.

I have accepted two urgent questions under Standing Order 12.66. I call on Simon Thomas to ask the first urgent question.

Will the Cabinet Secretary outline the support that the Welsh Government is providing following the closure of the Department of Work and Pensions’ office in Llanelli, leading to the loss of 146 jobs? EAQ(5)0117(EI)

Matters within the remit of the Department for Work and Pensions are not devolved to the Welsh Government. While the question is important, it is up to the DWP how it manages its estate in Wales. The Welsh Government has no responsibility over this. I understand that the department has indicated that all staff affected will be offered alternative roles subject to the standard DWP processes and staff consultations.

I thank the Minister for her reply. It’s not devolved, although we have long advocated in Plaid Cymru that job centres should be devolved, and the opportunity is missed in the Wales Bill to protect some of these jobs in Llanelli and elsewhere. I understand that the Llanelli back-office has been judged internally as one of the best-performing offices fairly recently. Therefore, there’s no question about the work that’s undertaken by people there. This is simply administrative convenience for DWP, which means that it is not taking into account its overall UK responsibilities to maintain local economies and to maintain a pattern of local working. I would have thought that the Welsh Government would be interested and concerned about that.

So, can I specifically ask you, Minister: although it’s not your devolved responsibility, has this Government—the Welsh Government—written yet to the DWP about this closure in Llanelli, but also the wider programme that affects many communities in Wales? Have you seen an equality impact assessment done, particularly as regards workers who may have mobility issues in travelling, as well as the impact assessments, of course, for the closure of local job centres over two and three miles away from claimants? You say that the proposal is that there shouldn’t be redundancies; however, there is no concrete guarantee that I can see from the DWP that there won’t be redundancies. Have you been given that guarantee, bearing in mind that the relocation could involve offices as far away as Pembroke Dock and Cardiff? That’s a very invidious position for somebody living in Llanelli or the Llanelli area to be put in. Finally, what further steps can you take to bring some pressure to bear on the DWP to take its wider social responsibility concerns into account, rather than this cut-and-slash approach that it has towards providing our public services?

I thank the Member for that series of questions. I can confirm that we have been in conversation with the DWP about wider employability, and about the possibility of the co-location of some offices, although not specifically about the office in Llanelli that he mentions. I, too, share his concern that this has been taken on narrow estate grounds only. My understanding is that a PFI contract has come to an end, and that this is an estates-driven rearrangement and nothing to do with the jobs. We haven’t had any additional information other than what the DWP has told everyone, which is that they are seeking to transfer the roles of the staff involved, and that they will be subject to the usual terms and conditions for that. We will be keeping a close eye on that. Officials are meeting with them around a range of issues. We will be taking up that particular point with them, not only for the Llanelli office, but for all of the offices affected.

I think I, personally, would like to say that I’m a bit disappointed that they couldn’t have given us more indication of what could have happened. They have taken it on very narrow grounds. They haven’t taken into account the local economy and other things. They actually haven’t even taken into account the possibility of co-location on a wider level. It is just an estates policy. We don’t have any power over it, however. It’s up to them if they want to do that. But I will say that we are continuing our conversation with them about co-location. It is essential that the services are seamless. My officials are working very hard with the DWP to make sure that, from the point of view of our citizens, employability and other services put through the DWP and Jobcentre Plus, for example, look as seamless as possible from the point of view of the person receiving the services.

Minister, I must tell you that workers in Llanelli have very little faith that the DWP proposals will result in no redundancies. They have been told that, if suitable jobs can’t be found in ‘nearby’ locations, they’ll be regarded as surplus, which is code for job losses. The nearby locations, we are told, include Pembroke Dock and Cardiff, which can only be the definition of a man in Whitehall—that a journey of 60 miles is a ‘nearby location’. Would the Minister speak to the Secretary of State for Wales and remind him of the words he’s issued about close economic co-operation between the Welsh and the UK Governments? The economic impact of losing 146 jobs in the heart of Llanelli will be significant at a time when there are deep-seated worries around the state of other jobs in the area. Would you also remind the Secretary of State of the words that the Prime Minister has issued post Brexit about spreading prosperity around the UK? These actions, which you say are justified on estates grounds, are entirely lacking in thought or strategic judgment or compassion about their impact on the economies of the constituency I represent in this Assembly.

Finally, Minister, if the grounds being justified by the DWP are in modernising the estate, would the Minister remind the DWP that both Carmarthenshire County Council and the Welsh Government would happily work with Whitehall to make sure they can find suitable alternative offices that meet their objectives under their new estates plan, but also safeguard jobs in my community?

I thank the Member for that. I’m very happy to write to both the Secretary of State for Wales and the Minister responsible for this on the grounds that the Member has outlined. There is the possibility that the Member would like to put his own views into the consultation. There is a consultation website at www.gov.uk/dwp/consultations. I’ve tried it myself and it’s very easy to find. I would urge all Members to put their own views in on that basis. But I’m more than happy to say that we will write directly to the Secretary of State and remind him of those words.

I would just emphasise, though, that we are in conversation with the DWP on the employability programme that we’re running, and we will be taking this forward as part of that. But I don’t have any more information than the Member about the job losses. It wasn’t shared with us in advance. We knew that there was an estate rationalisation going on, but we didn’t have the detail. It is not devolved, so they’re within their rights to do it in that way, although it’s disappointing that they didn’t see fit to share it with us in advance to see whether we could ameliorate some of the effects.

I thank the Minister.