24 October 2016

Dear Mike,

Petition P-04-688 TATA Steel Port Talbot Power Plant

Thank you for your letter dated 3 October regarding a petition about a power plant at Tata Steel Port Talbot.

The EIS Committee noted the petition at our meeting looking at the future of the Steel industry in Wales on 19 October 2016.

At the same session, I raised the petition with the First Minister who said he was aware of the underlying issue. When asked to comment further he conferred with a senior official before saying:

“I was just checking what I can say given the commercial situation.

“It’s part of the £60m package that we can help with the power plant. And good progress is being made on that.

“What we have offered Tata we believe is a good deal. Tata have said the same thing. But of course we still have these outstanding issues of energy prices and pensions that will need to be addressed for the full package to be made available for Tata.

“There’s no difficulty in terms of going forward with the support we’ve put in place.”

Petitioners may also wish to be aware that there were further discussions around energy prices and energy conservation throughout our session on 19 October – both with steel producers, and the unions representing steel workers. The video of the session can be seen on Senedd TV.

Following the session, the committee has agreed to write to Prime Minister Theresa May MP. A copy of that letter will be available shortly on the committee’s website.

Russell George AM

Chair of the Economy, Infrastructure and Skills Committee