Freight Capacity Framework Agreement

Part of 1. Questions to the First Minister – in the Senedd at 1:35 pm on 22 October 2019.

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Photo of Mark Drakeford Mark Drakeford Labour 1:35, 22 October 2019

I thank the Member for that point. He makes an important point about freight capacity on the mainland between Wales and England. But discussions with the UK Government on this point have focused entirely on not whether there will be enough road capacity, but whether there will be hauliers with the necessary licences to operate their lorries on those roads at all. Because, in the event of a 'no deal' Brexit, we know that there simply will not be sufficient permits to allow HGVs to operate in the way that they have while we've been members of the European Union. The freight capacity framework agreement has focused primarily on additional capacity across the short straits, but it also has an impact here in Wales as well, between Welsh ports and the Republic of Ireland. Those ports, in the event of a 'no deal' Brexit, will find themselves with hauliers unable to operate in the way that they do now, stranded potentially on the continent of Europe, unable to return. And our problem in that context will not be whether the roads themselves are fit for purpose; it will be that we won't have the capacity that we have today to operate along them.