What assessment has the Welsh Government made of the impact the High Court decision relating to Baglan energy park will have on businesses? TQ611

My officials and I are considering the judgment, including the Welsh Government's position with regard to a possible appeal from the High Court judgment. The Welsh Government is very mindful of the stress and uncertainty that customers of the energy park have experienced. We will continue to work with all relevant parties to try to secure a solution that protects the environment, public health and jobs. I of course have issued a written statement on this issue yesterday after Mike Hedges's request in questions to the Trefnydd. 

Diolch, Weinidog. I'm sure you'll be glad to know that this is my last question to you today. Jonathan Ridd, a director in the energy park, has said that small firms at the park will now have to foot the cost of diesel generators in order to continue operating, stating that given rising fuel costs some businesses will likely be paying up to eight times more for energy. This in turn puts pressure on firms' finances, with some potentially having no option but to potentially downsize, putting jobs at risk if this goes ahead. Has the Government specifically looked at how they can help businesses with the additional potential cost, and what support is on standby for any worker who might find themselves without a job?

If workers do find themselves without a job, we have a range of support measures that we can take and have taken in the past. What we're actually trying to do, though, in a range of the steps that we're taking is to try to avoid a significant loss of jobs as a result of the proposed action to cut off the power supplies. What the judgment did say was that all businesses will have their power maintained until at least 4 April. That isn't a long distance into the future, and that means that there is a real imperative for my officials and I to make choices about whether we're going to appeal the judgment or whether, indeed, that can be put off because of the judicial review proceedings that I have served upon the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy in the UK Government.

Yes, I am concerned, yes, I continue to work with my officials but also other partners including Neath Port Talbot Council and Dŵr Cymru, and yes, we're particularly concerned about the impact on jobs within the park. The challenge for this is, though, that if people do use diesel generators, it isn't just the cost to them—there is an environmental cost to that as well. This is an area that doesn't have great air quality, and significant use of diesel generators may be something that Natural Resources Wales would not be in a position to permit. We have a range of areas that we've asked the court to consider. As I say, I'll need to take further advice from my officials, including legal advice, and if there is to be any further action taken, I will, of course, update Members with another written statement. 

As mentioned by the Minister, I asked a question on this to the Trefnydd yesterday. Can I thank the Welsh Government for their very prompt action? I read the Minister's statement yesterday. I welcome the decision to serve proceedings via judicial review on BEIS. This has the potential to seriously affect the employment of people living in Swansea, Neath Port Talbot and Bridgend, as you know yourself, Deputy Presiding Officer. The inaction of the Westminster Government is shocking. Is there anything further that the Welsh Government or firms on the site can do to ensure a continuity of supply?

We've worked really hard over nearly a year now to try to regularise the supply since the official receiver was appointed and since there was a real threat to the power supply. There's a reason why the Deputy Presiding Officer can't ask this question even though it's in his constituency, and I've been able to update him on a range of matters outside of the Chamber. The power supply affects businesses on the park; it also affects the power supply to pumping stations operated by Neath Port Talbot Council and Dŵr Cymru. Part of our challenge is that if those pumping stations fail and there's a storm event, as we're all used to seeing on a more regular basis, there are potentially significant consequences for businesses, residents, and what it would mean for the nearby estuary environment if there was a foul water escape. That environmental and human harm is avoidable. That's why we're taking the judicial review action—because it's our contention that the Secretary of State in the UK Government does have the power to direct the official receiver. It's worth noting that, in open court, the legal representatives for the official receiver appeared to concede that that was their view too. The challenge is whether the Secretary of State will exercise the power that we say he has or whether, actually, we will end up spending lots of public money on going through another course of legal action rather than acting on what I would see as the most proportionate and least costly way of avoiding the significant harm that really could be done to jobs, public health and the environment. 

Minister, as you quite rightly pointed out in your written statement, there will be a very significant impact from the termination of the private wire energy supply to businesses and citizens in Baglan. In addition to the legal proceedings that have been launched by the Welsh Government, Dŵr Cymru and Neath Port Talbot Council, what else is being done to speed up the supply of energy to the site so that jobs can be secured and workers given the confidence they need to be reassured that the Welsh Government simply are not abandoning them in the mix of this situation?

I think the tone of your closing remark undoes some of the more positive points that you were making earlier. The Welsh Government has absolutely not abandoned workers. I've agreed to spend several million pounds—I've outlined this in previous written statements the Member will have had the opportunity to read—to actually regularise the supply. It's not a statutory responsibility of the Welsh Government to do that, but my choice to do that was because of the direct impact on significant numbers of jobs on that park. But also, as I pointed out in response to Mike Hedges and in the regular conversations that the constituency Member has had with me, if the pumping stations fail, there is the real potential for really significant harms to residents and businesses and the wider environment. That's why we are paying for a new connection to be put in place. Our challenge is that, whilst the connection to those pumping stations is due to be maintained until 18 April, we don't have certainty that Western Power will have regularised a supply to those places by then. Who on earth would want to be in a position where a week after Easter there's a storm event, there's a power supply that is intermittent, and those pumping stations were not to work effectively? We have taken the action we have done up to this point. It's why we think it is the right thing for the Secretary of State for BEIS to exercise the power that we say he has to direct the official receiver to a different course of action, taking proper account of the direct and unavoidable impact of ceasing the power supply at that point. As I say, once I've taken further advice from my officials, I'd be happy to update Members further when I do have more to say.

Thank you, Minister.