4. What assessment has the Counsel General made of the impact of the United Kingdom Internal Market Bill on the port of Holyhead? OQ55632

As it stands, the proposed UK internal market Bill is an assault on devolution and will be detrimental to the whole of Wales. There are elements in the Bill that create a particular risk to our ports, including Holyhead, and we will do our utmost to limit any detrimental impact.

Thank you very much. There's very real concern that the Bill could lead to trade being lost from Holyhead to ports in England and Scotland that go straight to Northern Ireland, and, with a third of the Holyhead-Dublin traffic going to or from Northern Ireland, that risk is very clear, and that's on top of the risk of more crossings going directly from the Republic of Ireland to continental Europe. I'm also concerned about the impact of the checks that will be required on lorries. I’ve already warned that there’s no space in the port itself. The UK Government has paid hardly any attention to Holyhead as compared to Dover, for example, and now with just weeks to go they are digging around for a location, suggesting totally inappropriate places such as the Sioe Môn ground, which would mean that there would be heavy traffic in that area 24 hours a day. Now, I know that the Welsh Government is in negotiations with the county council on this, but can you give us an assurance that you, like me and the council and my fellow Plaid Cymru Members in Westminster, are urging the UK Government in the strongest terms possible to ensure that everything possible is done to ensure the flow of trade through Holyhead and to secure the future of a port that is so important for Ynys Môn and the whole of Wales?

Well, the Member is right to raise this issue in the way that he has and I agree with his analysis. There is a great risk implicit in this and we’ve lost a significant period at the start of the year when we could have been making arrangements for work to ensure that this happens in a sensible way that is planned, not in the way that it’s being done now.

In terms of communication with the UK Government on this, I was in a meeting yesterday, making the exact points that the Member has suggested, to ensure that work is being done urgently to look at appropriate locations, to ensure that that happens in partnership with us as a Government, and with local government and with the companies that use the port and the port itself, and also the question of which checks are going to be undertaken. I’ve written to the UK Government to get some assurance that the same kinds of checks happen in England and Scotland, to avoid a situation where there is an incentive for lorries to go on different routes, and I think that's at the forefront of the Member's mind. So, we are putting pressure on this and we’re waiting for information from the UK Government about the impact of transport being delayed in and outside the port, which will be vital to the arrangements that we make on the ground. So, I can give him some assurance that we are raising these issues regularly. We have a ministerial meeting this afternoon to discuss this, because it’s so important.