Questions Without Notice from the Party Leaders

Part of 1. Questions to the First Minister – in the Senedd at 2:40 pm on 11 June 2019.

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Photo of Mark Drakeford Mark Drakeford Labour 2:40, 11 June 2019

I thank the Member for those questions. The work that the taskforce has been involved in flowed in part from the meetings that I and my colleague Ken Skates had with the most senior Ford representatives back in January here in Cardiff, and the programme of work that was discharged there was very much shaped by what appeared to be Ford's commitment at that time to securing a long-term future for the plant. So, there were a series of prospects that we discussed with them, and brought them, the unions, the UK Government and ourselves around the table to work on a prospectus for the future of the plant that had been shared with us by the most senior management in Ford itself, and that is why the decision was so unexpected on the day that it came, because we appeared to have an agreed set of ideas that we were all committed to working on together. 

Separately, of course, as Ken Skates said in answers to other questions, the Welsh Government has been in discussions with other companies that have an interest in coming to that site and to that part of Bridgend. Those continued separately to the group that was talking about the future of Ford on that site, but, from a Welsh Government position, of course, we're involved in all those discussions together. I look forward, Llywydd, very soon to meeting with senior Ford Europe decision makers, because this was a Ford Europe decision, and arrangements are being made to make sure that we have those further face-to-face meetings.

I was fortunate enough, last week, to be able to have a discussion with the First Minister of Scotland about what had happened in Dundee with Michelin, and she was generous in offering to share some of that experience with us further, to give us access to her officials, to talk about the way in which they had approached that. And it's been part of my discussions with the Prime Minister, when I spoke to her on Friday, and I've written to her again today, to reflect on some of that Scottish experience and the importance, as the First Minister of Scotland said to me, of trying to retain some presence on a site from a company that's had a long-term investment in any part of the United Kingdom. 

Finally, in relation to further strategies and so on, we have our economic action plan. We will be looking at it, of course, in the light of the Ford experience. But we're not without a strategy; we have that strategy already, and we will see where it needs to be further updated in the light of the most recent experience.