The Manufacturing Sector

Part of 1. Questions to the First Minister – in the Senedd at 10:52 am on 15 July 2020.

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Photo of Mark Drakeford Mark Drakeford Labour 10:52, 15 July 2020

Well, Llywydd, I'm very happy indeed to provide that assurance to David Rees. He's right, 10.7 per cent of Welsh employment takes place in the manufacturing sector, compared to 7.9 per cent of the UK employment in that sector. So, it's obviously of much greater importance to us here in Wales, and particularly to communities of the sort that David Rees so regularly speaks up for here on the floor of the Senedd.

I want to recognise where the UK Government has stepped in to help. On 2 July the emergency loan to Celsa, in the steel industry, was a very important decision and has helped to safeguard 800 jobs here in south Wales. But that is the example of what more is needed. We absolutely have to have sectoral employment protection schemes for steel, for automotive and for aerospace. Those are fundamental industries here in Wales. They face existential crises as a result of coronavirus, and each one of them needs a bespoke package of help from the UK Government in order to make sure that they are here the other side of this crisis, because the UK economy needs a steel industry, the UK economy needs a successful aerospace industry, and only the UK Government has that firepower, as my colleague Ken Skates has put it, to step in and provide help of the sort that is needed.

The Welsh Government will continue to do the things that we do—investing in skills, investing in research, helping with local investments that we can put in place, as we have with Tata in Port Talbot—but the nature of the crisis is such that it is a UK response that is needed and, sadly, we didn't hear anything of it in the summer statement of Wednesday last week.