Part of 3. Topical Questions – in the Senedd at 3:25 pm on 15 May 2019.
Can I thank Jack Sargeant for his contribution and for his questions? I can assure the Member that I'm maintaining a keen interest in all of Tata's sites across Wales, and tomorrow morning, I will be visiting Tata Shotton to meet with local union representatives and, of course, executives at the plant. I think it may be a timely moment for the cross-party steel group to reconvene here in the Assembly to consider the various matters that are being discussed this afternoon, and I would absolutely agree with the Member that sky-high energy costs are the major challenge, not just to Tata's operations, but to the whole of the steel community across the United Kingdom, and, indeed, to a huge number of energy-intensive firms. It's therefore absolutely vital that the UK acts on volatile and often extraordinarily high energy costs that leave businesses in Britain at a competitive disadvantage.
Jack Sargeant also makes the important point concerning procurement and, of course, there are some major infrastructure projects at a UK and, indeed, at a Welsh level that we would wish to see Welsh steel used in. For our part here in Wales, they include road-building projects, they include, of course, the metro as well. And at a UK level, projects such as HS2 should, in my view, utilise steel made here in Wales.