Part of 2. Questions to the Counsel General and Minister for European Transition (in respect of his European Transition responsibilities) – in the Senedd at 2:37 pm on 9 December 2020.
Well, I've reported to this Chamber on a number of occasions the work that we've been doing with both the UK Government and HMRC in relation to preparations for Holyhead. It starts from the proposition that any disruption is actually a consequence of political choices that the UK Government have made. Now, what we are engaged with, with them, and with others, is seeking to minimise the impact on the people of north Wales of choices that his Government in Westminster have forced upon them. That's the backdrop to this. And what we are doing is working co-operatively with the UK Government, HMRC, the council, and other partners, in order to mitigate that damage.
The UK Government, as you know, has so far led on the question of seeking a location for the checkpoint, as it were. The intention is that both customs and the border control post will be located near each other to minimise the inconvenience to freight in doing so. There are commercial negotiations ongoing in relation to a site, so I won't comment further in relation to that. But the truth of the matter is, and I say this just as a matter of fact, that these decisions ought to have been made back in March, April, and could have been made then, and instead they're being made against an immense pressure of time. And the people who will bear the burden of that are the hauliers, are the traders, are the people of north-west Wales, as we do everything we can to try and mitigate the impact, and we do it in a way that is collaborative and co-operative, despite our political differences.
As I say, so far, the UK Government has led on that as part of the UK-wide port programme. We sought engagement very early on, and it was late in the day in arising, but against that backdrop, we do all that we can within our powers to ensure that as much as possible of the damage and disruption is mitigated.