Hinkley Point C stakeholder reference group meeting: 16 November 2020: meeting notes

Members present:

• Jane Davidson (Chair)
• Professor Roger Falconer
• Dr Justin Gwynn
• Dr James Robinson
• Rachel Sharp

Apologies were received from Dr Rhoda Ballinger and Dr Huw Brunt

Also present from the Welsh Government:

• Dan Butler, Special Adviser to the First Minister
• John Howells, Tara Doster, Jonni Tomos (Secretariat)

The fifth meeting of the First Minister’s Hinkley Point C Stakeholder Reference Group was held on 16 November. The Group agreed the minutes from the previous meeting, held on 19 October. 

The Group reflected on the evidence it had gathered to date, and discussed the emerging themes it felt should be the focus of the Group’s forward work programme.  The Group agreed six priority areas to pursue, with a view to providing advice on these matters to the First Minister, in a 1^st phase report, in March 2021:

• The status and use of marine disposal grounds in the Severn Estuary for dredged material, including from Hinkley Point C;
• Examining the resilience of the Severn Estuary marine ecosystem;
• Emergency and contingency planning;
• The use of legal powers held by the Welsh Government and its agencies;
• Cross-border relations and arrangements;
• The independence of agencies in the development process.

The Group agreed which organisations and agencies it still needed to consult to enable it to reach fully informed conclusions, and it agreed to write to those stakeholders with a view to receiving written evidence prior to its next meeting.

The Group agreed to present its findings in a report to the First Minister by March 2021 in view of the Senedd elections. The focus of meetings in the new year would be to consolidate the evidence base for any advice which would be contained in the report.

The Group agreed that its next meeting should be on 21 December 2020, at 9.00am.