Part of 1. Questions to the Minister for Economy and Transport and North Wales – in the Senedd at 1:56 pm on 7 October 2020.
Can I thank Helen Mary Jones for her question? It gives me an opportunity to promote the consultation that's taking place at the moment concerning the Welsh Government's new manufacturing plan. I encourage all Members to contribute to that consultation, because it covers all important sectors within the Welsh manufacturing base, including, obviously, steel. And we are determined to support the sector to become sustainable. But the main role—as the Member has alluded to, the main role in supporting the future of the sector is actually the UK Government's. And the industrial energy transformation fund could prove to be of huge value, but we've been clear in stating that, as a very minimum, we would expect a Barnett equivalent to be drawn down by Welsh businesses from the industrial energy transformation fund. We've said that, actually, we believe that a significant proportion of that fund should come to Welsh businesses, given how we are dependent on many businesses that are intensive in terms of their energy use.
Now, we have very regular discussions both with UK Government and with Tata, and, in fact, I have weekly calls with UK Government Ministers within the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy. My understanding is that those commercially confidential discussions are still proceeding between Tata and UK Government, and we've impressed upon UK Government a need to make sure that there is sector-specific support relating to the pandemic for important manufacturing subsectors, such as steel, automotive and aerospace.