13. Statement by the Minister for Housing and Local Government: Preparing our Public Services for a 'No Deal' Brexit — Civil Contingencies

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 6:42 pm on 22 January 2019.

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Photo of Julie James Julie James Labour 6:42, 22 January 2019

The Member makes an important point. At the partnership council that I chaired very recently to discuss the possibility of a 'no deal' Brexit, this issue was very much a topic on the agenda, to ensure that, as I said in response to Leanne Wood, the supply chain is looked at in detail for the preparation of things like school meals or meals on wheels and those kinds of provisions—care homes, residential homes and so on—that they have their supply chain sorted out and look at their menus, frankly, to just make sure that we have got a range of options in place.

I would like to just reiterate that we are not anticipating widespread food shortages and people should not stockpile food, because obviously that can cause the shortage in and of itself, so it's a very important line. But the partnership council were fully on board with that. That is what the resilience forums are looking at. Each local authority is asked to look at that and colleagues across the Government have mentioned it in their contributions this afternoon in terms of their particular sectors. I'm looking at the whole piece, if you like, just to make sure that we have the co-ordination in place. But I cannot emphasise enough that we need to get the planning right without setting any hares running about food shortages.