Background

The External Affairs and Additional Legislation Committee agreed to look at how the public sector and businesses in Wales were preparing for Brexit. The resilience and preparedness of the public and private sectors in Wales was raised in a number of the Committee’s previous inquiries.

Terms of reference

The purpose of the inquiry was to examine:

• the Welsh Government’s internal administrative and financial response to Brexit; and
• how the Welsh Government supported public services, higher education, third sector and economic sectors to prepare for exiting the European Union.

Evidence gathering

As part of the inquiry, the Committee launched a consultation and held a number evidence sessions to inform its work.

On 6 November 2017, the Committee visited stakeholders in Swansea, Llanelli and Caerleon. This was in order to look at how the public sector and businesses in Wales are preparing for Brexit. Read the reports from the Swansea and Llanelli (PDF, 259KB) visit and the Caerleon (PDF, 64KB) visit.

Report

The Committee published its report ‘How is the Welsh Government preparing for Brexit?’ in February 2018.

On the day the report was published, David Rees AM, Chair of the Committee, said:

“Sectors and organisations are looking to the Welsh Government for leadership and it is imperative that they are able to start making their own plans for life outside the EU.

“We are calling on the Welsh Government to give a stronger steer to these sectors to ensure we are all set on the same path when we leave at the end of the negotiations.”

Response to the report

The Welsh Government laid its response to the report on 12 April 2018. The report and Welsh Government response was debated in Plenary on 18 April 2018. Watch the debate on Senedd.TV.

Follow-up work

At its meeting on 16 July 2018, the Committee agreed undertake further follow-up work on aspects of Wales’ preparedness for Brexit in the autumn term.

The Committee since undertook joint work with the Wales Audit Office on Brexit preparedness and continued to scrutinise the preparedness of key sectors.