3. Statement by the Minister for Economy: Border Controls

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 3:10 pm on 3 May 2022.

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Photo of Vaughan Gething Vaughan Gething Labour 3:10, 3 May 2022

Yes, I think the Member makes a number of important points, both about council staff that have already been recruited and about making sure that those contracts are honoured and those people have work to do. It's also about there having been a good bit of wasted time, energy and effort in both local authorities as well, and I doubt that the staff at Pembrokeshire authority or, indeed, in Ynys Môn are going to welcome the fact that the time that they have expended appears to have been wasted and without any certainty about when it's going to come to an end or when there's going to be a definite answer.

And also the potential for some jobs that would have been created in the construction of both temporary and permanent facilities, there's no way of giving anyone any certainty about that. But we do need to know, within a relatively brief period of time, what we are going to need to do, because if we're not going to have permanent posts in place by spring next year in Holyhead as we were planning to do, we'll need to know what the plan is for the future, what the alternative facilities are going to look like, whether we need to relet our procurement itself, which would cost more public money that the Treasury would normally be undertaking and supporting, and the inevitable point that Paul Davies has made as well about the fact that the costs would likely rise in that time.

It's my understanding that inflation tends not to stand still and, at this point in time, inflation is definitely going to increase the costs in a range of construction projects, but also the availability of the labour and the skills to undertake the build project in time, and having that time to be able to not just get facilities ready or systems ready, but crucially for businesses to be ready themselves as well. They'll need to plan for any new system too, and that takes on board your point about FibreSpeed and the infrastructure that is there already, and I'll certainly make sure that my officials do follow up with the UK Government. It comes to your point about needing to understand, in following that up, what the new system is going to be, making sure we don't duplicate and create an additional set of infrastructure that is not necessary, but actually we need to understand what the plan is going to be for the future in any event.

Without a hint of irony, Jacob Rees-Mogg talked about introducing border controls as being akin to an act of self-harm. Well, there are alternatives to the position we find ourselves in, but it was the choice that was made in the treaty that was negotiated with the European Union for how trade would work, and if there is to be an alternative choice, we all need to understand what that's going to be, when it's going to take place, and there's got to be a proper and respectful conversation with the Welsh Government so that we can properly account to this Welsh Parliament for the choices that we need to make on behalf of the people of Wales.