Part of 3. Topical Questions – in the Senedd at 3:45 pm on 9 May 2018.
Seven hundred and fourteen staff are affected from the Gabalfa site in my constituency of Cardiff North, and there are a high number of those staff who do have disabilities and do have caring responsibilities, so there is huge concern about how they're actually going to cope with this move. Can the Minister find out why a consultation hasn't already started with the staff? Because, as we know, this has been mooted for some time, and the staff do need maximum preparation for this move, so I'd be grateful if she could undertake to ask why this consultation hasn't already started with my constituents and all the other 1,700 people who are suffering in this way.
The other issue, of course, is the loss of expertise. I understand from talking to the PCS union that the staff are already under stress in terms of dealing with the welfare benefits changes that they are undertaking. So, what can we do to ensure that we do retain the expertise, because we are bound to lose a lot of people when this move takes place? And could she confirm that, in the costings from the DWP, all the costs of this move have been fully taken into account? Because there's going to be voluntary redundancy costs, potential compulsory redundancy costs, recruitment of replacement staff, new staff training costs, benefits costs for anyone who cannot find alternative work, and then, also, the impact on the local communities of losing those jobs in those areas, because it's going to have a huge impact on those areas.
It just seems an absolutely crazy policy to move jobs from places that are already struggling and suffering, and really to say that it's to be in line with the Valleys taskforce I think is absolutely disgraceful. So, I'd be grateful if the Minister could take up these issues and also the issue that Dawn raised about is this building being built by a PFI contract.