5. What assessment has been made of how a no-deal Brexit would impact the Welsh economy? OAQ54446

The UK Government's own estimate suggests that with a 'no deal' Brexit, the UK economy would be around 9 per cent smaller in 15 years' time than it otherwise would have been. The Bank of England has estimated that every person in Wales is already £1,000 worse off than they would've been as a result of Brexit uncertainty, and living standards will also suffer as prices at home and the cost of travel abroad increase, as a result of devaluation and tariffs.

Thank you for that answer, Trefnydd. The A55 is a busy road, mainly due to trade traffic, including that heading to and from Holyhead. If the Government's project fear is to be believed, shouldn't the decision to build a new road along the red route, which is largely going to be for trade traffic, be frozen and re-examined at a later date, particularly since the current plans involve destroying an area of rare ancient woodland and other protected sites and you've just declared a climate emergency? Surely, if you have any faith in your professed concerns over Brexit, you must be doubtful that the red route will be needed.

Well, we are very concerned in terms of transport following Brexit, but many of those concerns will materialise on day 1, or if not, very shortly after. So, I think that bringing the two issues together doesn't necessarily match. However, Welsh Government is working really hard to seek to avoid as much disruption as humanly possible to freight and to other transportation following a potential 'no deal' Brexit.

I know there's a lot of doom and gloom on the Labour benches about Brexit, but one of the opportunities that Brexit will bring, of course, is an opportunity to address the procurement processes that we have in Wales and to improve them to give Welsh businesses a better opportunity to take advantage of public sector procurement. What action has the Welsh Government got in train to reform your procurement processes so that, once we leave the EU, our businesses here can thrive?

Well, Welsh Government has been doing a huge amount of work in this area, and I look forward to being able to provide a fuller statement to colleagues in due course. But, what I will say is that we're looking very closely at the foundational economy work to explore how we can ensure that our investment very much goes back into the local economy and supports those anchor industries and anchor businesses that are there and don't leave our economies. We're doing a huge amount of work to ensure that we get the maximum benefit in other ways from our procurement as well, so we're looking at the declaration of the climate emergency and what more we can be doing to ensure that our investment leads to decarbonisation across the board as well. So, I look forward to providing more information on procurement, but I would say that, in terms of the benefits of Brexit, they're very, very hard to find, especially when we compare them to the figures that I outlined earlier on during questions this afternoon, looking at the overall impact that Brexit might have on families and our country.