Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 3:52 pm on 17 November 2020.
Can I thank Dai Rees for his questions and say that he is a powerful and passionate advocate for Port Talbot and for the steel sector as a whole in Wales? I very much welcome his contribution today, and I would agree with him that this does present the UK Government with an enormous opportunity to demonstrate a commitment, a true commitment, to levelling up, but also to secure what I think is a nationally strategic interest for the United Kingdom. I think steel is important to our national security. I don't think it's possible to imagine a scenario where, as we reach the end of the transition period, we could possibly tolerate the idea that steel making could be lost from the United Kingdom. That is simply unimaginable. And the UK Government can therefore take this opportunity to guarantee that we will have a viable, secure future for the sector across the United Kingdom, and there are many, many opportunities I've already outlined, in terms of procurement as well, with demand purely within the UK estimated to almost double over the course of this decade—huge opportunities if procurement is sorted to make sure that we capture as much of the public spend as possible for UK steel operations.
I'm working with Tata and also, I have to say, with Community. I had a very, very good discussion, a constrictive discussion, with Roy Rickhuss today at Community. I can say that we are perfectly aligned with the Community union. There is not a cigarette paper between us in terms of our belief in the sector, our commitment to Tata, our desire to make sure that steel in the UK has a strong and viable future, and we're going to be working together with Tata in understanding exactly what the move towards becoming self-sustaining means, and how that can be reached and when it will be reached.
Carbon capture could have an important role in terms of meeting our obligations on carbon emissions, and, in terms of the emissions trading scheme, Deputy Llywydd, I'm afraid I could talk for quite some time about the ETS, but I'll just say that—