Questions Without Notice from Party Spokespeople

Part of 1. Questions to the Cabinet Secretary for Economy and Transport – in the Senedd at 1:56 pm on 7 February 2018.

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Photo of Suzy Davies Suzy Davies Conservative 1:56, 7 February 2018

Thank you, and thank you for the elaboration as well, because I was hoping you'd say 'avoiding duplication of effort' in that as well. And thank you for taking the question. I appreciate that some of this is the finance Cabinet Secretary's responsibility, but, as an economy Secretary, I would hope that you would be at least playing a part in defining those KPIs.

The deals, of course, have had a lot of media focus and attention over the last year or so. That means that businesses have been contacting me to ask how they can get involved, and I've already raised the example of Associated British Ports with you, who could, in my view, be obvious players in your ports strategy. With the logistical expertise and experience that they have, I think they could be significant players in the city deal as well. In September last year, the First Minister said that he would ask the shadow board what they are doing to engage with ABP, but ABP have still not heard anything from the shadow board. So, I'm wondering if you could check and report back whether the First Minister did write, and what response he had to that particular overture, but, more generally, how the board respond to any request you may make of them now about how the city deal projects might be tweaked in order to fit better with subsequently produced Welsh Government strategies—the economy and the port strategies being the obvious ones, but those that have come after the city deal, rather than before.