The work to assess impacts and put mitigation in place is critical in minimising the need for a civil contingency response. For Brexit and for a 'no deal' Brexit, we are working through a range of partnerships, including the Wales resilience forum, the joint emergency services group and directly with the four local resilience forums across Wales. Specifically, we are building on our established structures to deal with multiple Brexit-related civil contingency issues at any one time, all without compromising our ability to also respond to any non-Brexit-related issues, such as severe adverse weather events. I am grateful to the multi-agency Wales risk group for developing a regional and Wales assessment of the potential Brexit impacts on their areas and on Wales as a whole, and then considering the necessary mitigations and how the risk can be managed.  

This is a fast-moving subject, as the events in the House of Commons over the last week have shown. The assumptions on which the plans have been produced will change as new information emerges or as mitigations are put in place, and all these assumptions underpinning our planning will be fully tested. My Cabinet colleagues have already highlighted work to mitigate some of these working assumptions. For example, the contingency planning has considered how to address potential disruption at ports, how to help ensure food security, and also how to maintain the availability of medicines and supplies.  

We are putting in place our command, control and co-ordination arrangements, and we are currently consulting the local resilience forums about our proposals. The proposed arrangements have been designed to make sure that we create a common understanding of local and regional issues, and also the impacts in key sectors across Wales so we can adjust our planning accordingly. The arrangements will provide a strong support infrastructure to help quickly identify the emerging issues to support quick and effective decision making by all those involved. Importantly, the arrangements will also enable co-ordinated public and media communications about civil contingency matters that will be shared across the public sector.

We will manage our response at a national level through our Emergency Co-ordination Centre (Wales). Plans are in place to mobilise the centre if and when necessary, and Government staff will be called on to assist our core resilience team. The working assumption is that we will operate the centre in a limited capacity during February. This will enable monitoring and reporting arrangements at a regional and Wales level, and ensure engagement with any UK civil contingency arrangements. Senior civil contingencies advisers are being recruited from within the Welsh Government, but their immediate priority will be to support the work of the local resilience forums within their own command, control and co-ordination planning for a possible 'no deal' Brexit.

Our public services are engaged in planning for Brexit as individual services, and many are members of the local resilience forums. Our three fire and rescue authorities are working together with the National Fire Chiefs Council to plan for the consequences of a 'no deal' Brexit, for example. This includes active engagement at the most senior levels of management and with the local resilience forums. The Welsh Ambulance Services NHS Trust has nominated a senior responsible officer at director level to oversee the organisation’s preparations, and its board is monitoring the position. The trust is also fully engaged with the planning currently being led by the resilience forums across Wales and with the Welsh Government.

Leaving the European Union has created social and political division, and has added to tensions around closely linked issues including migration, race and faith relations, and human rights. The Welsh Government’s vision for Wales is as an inclusive country in which people from all backgrounds are welcomed and where there is no room for xenophobia, racism or bigotry. The Welsh Government is working with a number of partners, including local authorities, police forces and equality and inclusion organisations in the third sector, to ensure that cohesion takes root in all our communities.

Through its EU transition fund, the Welsh Government is expanding its regional community cohesion programme. The additional funding will be used to build on the existing network of regional community cohesion co-ordinators to undertake specific work to mitigate potential community tensions relating to Brexit. Our hate crime criminal justice board Cymru has also considered the possible impacts of Brexit and of hate crime targeting ethnic and religious minorities. The £1.3 million EU citizens' rights project funded from the EU transition fund will ensure EU citizens have access to appropriate advice services, are protected from exploitation and exclusion, and are encouraged to continue living in Wales and fulfil their potential.

We are continuing to work with local authorities to identify and plan for impacts across all services, and the Welsh Government is funding the Welsh Local Government Association to support councils to prepare for Brexit. This includes funding the Grant Thornton toolkit, as well as further support. The toolkit provides a straightforward guide to the questions local authorities need to consider in order to be able to plan effectively across the range of their services and responsibilities. These include workforce issues, financial impacts, regulation, local economic impacts and support for vulnerable people and community cohesion.

I have set out some of the current work towards minimising the risk of the need for a civil contingency response. We are under no illusions about the impact of a 'no deal' Brexit, and while civil contingencies planning cannot address every issue related to a 'no deal' Brexit, we are fortunate that we do have a well-established structure and partnership in Wales on which to build so as to mitigate that impact.

It is important to emphasise that civil contingencies planning is a normal feature of our business and we are used to planning for adverse weather and for major events like the UEFA Champions League final in Cardiff in 2017, for example. It is inconceivable that we would not plan for the potential impacts of a 'no deal' Brexit. Our civil contingency planning is no way signalling that we expect an emergency, but rather that we want to work effectively with our public services and other partners to ensure they are prepared for a 'no deal' Brexit and that measures and mitigations are in place, as far as possible, to minimise the impacts of that 'no deal'.

In doing so, our aim is to minimise the likely need for a civil contingencies response. In these uncertain times, Members can take assurance from the fact that, as a responsible Government, we are taking the need to plan seriously and that, as a precautionary measure, we are putting plans in place to monitor any potential civil contingency issues and to respond quickly if necessary. Diolch.