Part of 3. Topical Questions – in the Senedd at 3:48 pm on 9 May 2018.
Thank you very much for those questions. I will certainly give you an undertaking to explore, alongside the issue of the impact assessment that Jayne Bryant mentioned, the other impact assessments that you have suggested and also the costs of the move. Certainly, I'll work with Julie James in order to get the kind of information that we now require, and either I or Julie will write to Members with the result of those investigations.
I agree that it's completely unfair of the UK Government to be keeping the staff in the dark about this and also to give them essentially a period now, looking towards 2021, of uncertainty. I think it's not the UK Government's intention to start consulting with staff until much closer to the time. I also understand that they're looking towards a phased movement, but, again, once we have more detail and more information about this, I'd be more than happy to share it with Members.
There is one aspect that will be interesting to Julie Morgan particularly, and this is in correspondence last week from Esther McVey, the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, to the First Minister. She states that there will be capacity for 100 DWP staff to relocate to the Government hub that is currently being constructed in Cardiff, in Central Square. So, that might be of particular interest to Julie.