<p>The Welsh Steel Sector</p>

Part of 3. 3. Topical Questions – in the Senedd at 3:11 pm on 20 September 2017.

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Photo of Suzy Davies Suzy Davies Conservative 3:11, 20 September 2017

Thank you very much. I particularly thank you for that last answer, Cabinet Secretary, because the five-year condition, of course, is something that you spoke a lot about when there was a possibility of sale for the site. When it comes to a five-year commitment, though, have you had any sense yet of what type of jobs the merged outfit is going to be prepared to commit to, and when will you find out what types of jobs are likely to be affected? Because the long-term sustainability is the crux here, rather than a simple five-year conditionality? One was supposed to lead to the other. The types of jobs that are going to be lost in Port Talbot—we need to know what types of jobs they are in order for us to be able to scrutinise further any plans that they may have on that.

The Welsh Government in the past has pledged to retrain people who have lost their jobs already. I imagine you may want to say something about that in the future as well. Is there anything that can be done on the back of this that will help accelerate interest in the enterprise zone in Port Talbot? And is there any influence that you can bring to bear that may—how can I put this—maximise the number of relevant jobs that can be brought to the new prison that we’ll be discussing this afternoon, if in fact it does come to the area?

And then I just wanted a little bit of reassurance myself on the steel science centre, because obviously this is a focal anchor project of the Swansea bay city deal. It was based on Tata itself, actually—comments that they had made about carbon-positive products and new construction material. I think we need to know whether ThyssenKrupp is also interested in this new way ahead before we can be completely satisfied that the science centre is sustainable.