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Hefin David is the Labour Senedd Member for the Caerphilly constituency.

During last week’s Senedd Economy Committee, I had the opportunity to question the minister for economy, Vaughan Gething, on the current situation at Tata Steel.

We have Tata Steel employees living in Caerphilly. I used my questions to try and unpick the role of government in the ongoing situation within Tata, which remains one of Wales’ biggest employers.

There are renewed fears that a decision is imminent on ending blast furnace operations at the works, which could mean thousands of job losses; I wanted to know how the Welsh Government are playing their part in reducing or mitigating these potential issues.

I asked the minister if there had been conversations with Tata leaders about the impact around making irreversible choices, ahead of what could be an incoming UK Labour government by the end of this year. 

The minister told me that he and the First Minister have met together, with global and UK leaders of Tata, on at least six occasions where they continued to get this concern across. He said he expects a UK Labour government to invest for more in Port Talbot than the current Tory administration. 

The minister also told the committee that there may be an opportunity for a Welsh Government representative to visit Tata leaders in Mumbai this year, to continue the discussion of saving jobs and progressing nearby offshore wind plans.

There needs to be an appropriately-timed proposal scheduled by Tata, to avoid a devastating result for Wales and the UK Steel industry. UK Labour have clearly promised extra funding for UK Steel, on top of what has already been under discussion. This devastation could be avoided if the company continues to engage with the Welsh and UK Governments, at key points during what is an election year.