2. Business Statement and Announcement

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 2:25 pm on 22 May 2018.

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Photo of Mike Hedges Mike Hedges Labour 2:25, 22 May 2018

I would like to ask for two statements—the first statement on Welsh Government action to improve electrical safety, following electrical fires in Mid and West Wales in the last two years. There have been 121 due to faulty equipment or appliances, 119 due to faulty electric supply, 15 from faulty leads and 52 from overheating. Those are serious problems. I'd like to have a Welsh Government statement on that.

I don't make any apologies for going back to the job losses in Virgin, yet again, for the second statement I'm going to ask for, because, as you know, it's a matter of grave concern in our part of the world. We met with representatives of the workforce last week, who came along, and they were concerned about when they would, firstly, start having people going in to talk to them and to see them, and, secondly, a number of firms, including Admiral—who have gone public on it—have offered to speak to them and to see if their skills meet Admiral's skills shortage. But if they're leaving because they're about to be made redundant, they believe they ought to get their redundancy pay, because they're declared redundant, rather than having to wait until the last day. The third one is that some of them would want to use their redundancy pay in order to support additional training, of which only a certain proportion would be paid for by ReAct, in order to upskill themselves. If they have their redundancy pay, the courses might start before the end of the closure. So, really, any updates would be really appreciated by the—sorry, why am I telling you? You know this. [Laughter.] Any updates would be really appreciated by the people working there.