Welsh Affairs

The Under-Secretary of State for Wales, my hon. Friend the Member for Caerphilly (Mr. David) will give more detail to the House when he makes his winding-up speech. I do not want to give information that is inaccurate in any sense, so I shall make sure that my hon. Friend deals with it in that speech. I have two other things to mention as far as the economy is concerned. The first is the announcement by RWE npower of plans to treble the size of their carbon capture pilot project at Aberthaw from 1 MW to 3 MW. Subject to planning permission, the construction of the £8.4 million project will begin later this year, with plans for the pilot to be fully operational by 2010. That is good news for us in Wales. It is the first pilot plant in the United Kingdom to capture carbon dioxide direct from a commercially operating power station. It will also provide a boost to the local economy, and given that the economy of our country is historically based on coal, it is excellent news for us. The other issue I wanted to mention, given that my hon. Friend the Member for Aberavon (Dr. Francis) is in his place, is the important work that his Committee did on globalisation. Everybody should read the report in question, and I would like to draw one part of it to the attention of the House:"““In the course of this inquiry, we have collected numerous examples of innovative practice in Wales, spanning the full range of economic sectors. These examples demonstrate that, despite the present difficulties, Wales does have the essential ingredients necessary to face the challenges of globalisation.””" That message from my hon. Friend's Committee is a very good one.