6. 2. Business Statement and Announcement

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 3:16 pm on 14 March 2017.

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Photo of Jane Hutt Jane Hutt Labour 3:16, 14 March 2017

I think this is another disappointing announcement from another major high street bank, and we’ve had them in all our constituencies across Wales—and also, indeed, Yorkshire Building Society; another one very recently. We've been aware of Barclays’s restructuring programme, and it obviously is a trend, as we've said—an unfortunate trend—in terms of the banking sector. So, the Cabinet Secretary for infrastructure and economy has written to Barclays, urging them to reconsider the decision. We want to safeguard jobs across Wales. We will, obviously, help in terms of staff facing redundancy. I think it's worth mentioning the ReAct III programme. That provides a comprehensive package of support to people in Wales affected by redundancy, and, of course, that is something where possible new employment is to be found soon after redundancy, preventing progression into long-term unemployment. So, there's been contact made between Barclays and Careers Wales and Jobcentre Plus. We've also alerted our employer contacts, including the Welsh contact centre forum, about the possibility of skilled staff coming into the jobs market over the next few years, and they're going to work, where they can, with Barclays and affected employees. Yesterday, a fast-expanding customer service venture, Firstsource, announced that it's going to begin a two-day recruitment event later this week, hoping to create a further 300 jobs in Cardiff—Discovery House, as we know, in Cardiff Bay, and Oakleigh House in the city centre. Also, we have the Vodafone announcement of 100 new customer service jobs. So, I think all these connections will be made to give some hope and prospects to those people who may unfortunately lose their jobs, particularly in terms of your constituency and the Llanishen mortgage advice contact centre.