Part of 4. Topical Questions – in the Senedd at 3:29 pm on 8 January 2020.
Can I be absolutely clear with Members? We have made repeated calls for the convening of a UK steel council meeting. I wrote to the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy on 25 November urging her urgently to reconvene the cancelled UK steel round-table meeting that had been granted following my urgent requests earlier in the autumn. There have been phone calls with the Secretary of State as well, in which I have pressed the case for bringing together key industry leaders to ensure that we are exploring all opportunities to improve the resilience of the sector in the UK. I would repeat today there is an absolute urgent need to reconvene the UK steel council; we have to ensure that the right people are around the table to discuss the actions that could be taken by Governments at every level across the UK to help the industry.
And the Member is right. There is a need, I think, to convene industry leaders more widely as well to discuss the future of manufacturing in Wales, which is why, before Christmas, I agreed to host a manufacturing summit. That will take place this winter at the Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre in Broughton. It's also why, before Christmas, I hosted an automotive summit concerning the future of the auto industry in Wales, which proved to be incredibly productive. And we will ensure that we stretch every sinew to save the steel industry, and manufacturing more generally in Wales.