Y Pwyllgor Menter a Busnes
Enterprise and Business Committee

The Enterprise and Business Committee is undertaking an inquiry into international connectivity through Welsh ports and airports.

The terms of reference for the inquiry are:

· How important are major Welsh ports and airports, both to the economy of their own regions and to Wales as a whole?

· What factors limit realisation of the potential offered by major Welsh ports and airports; what opportunities are available to develop this potential; and how can these be realised?

· How effectively do Welsh Government policies support the development of major Welsh ports and airports?

Key issues

The Committee will be considering the following issues as part of this inquiry:

· What role do the Welsh Government and local authorities play in facilitating the development of Welsh ports and airports?

· What factors have contributed to the decline in business through Cardiff Airport?

· How effectively does Welsh Government policy, primarily in the areas of transport, economic development, and land use planning policy, support the development of Welsh ports and airports?

· How can the Welsh Government develop economic opportunities, for example from tourism, international trade, freight and, in the case of ports, opportunities including the energy and renewable energy industries? What role do ports and airports, particularly Cardiff Airport, play in the key sectors identified by the Welsh Government?

· How effective is Welsh transport infrastructure and interconnectivity in supporting the development of Welsh ports and airports?

· Given that ports and airports policy is a reserved matter, how effectively does the Welsh Government engage with the UK Government in the interests of Wales?

· What impact do EU State Aid regulations have on the ability of the Welsh Government to provide support, and what opportunities are presented by EU ports and airports policy to support development in Wales?

Consultation process

Interested parties are invited to submit written evidence to the Clerk of the Enterprise and Business Committee. The Committee welcomes responses from both individuals and organisations. If you are responding on behalf of an organisation, please provide a brief description of the role of your organisation.

Generally, we ask for submissions to be made in writing because it is normal practice for the National Assembly to publish evidence provided to a Committee on our internet site so that it becomes part of the public record. However, we are also able to accept evidence in audio or video format.

The Committee welcomes contributions in English or Welsh, and we ask organisations with Welsh Language policies/schemes to provide bilingual submissions, in line with their public information policies.

If you wish to contribute evidence, please send an electronic copy of your submission to enterprise.committee@wales.gov.uk

Alternatively, you can submit it by post to:

Committee Clerk, Enterprise and Business Committee, National Assembly for Wales, Cardiff Bay, CF99 1NA.

Submissions should arrive by Wednesday 29 February 2012. It may not be possible to take into account responses received after this date.

Disclosure of Information

Witnesses should be aware that once written evidence has been submitted to the Committee it is treated as the property of the Committee.

It is the Committee’s intention to place written evidence on its website, and it may subsequently be printed with the report. The National Assembly will not publish information which it considers to be personal data with the exception of personal opinion and personal data relating to your identity as author of the evidence and the capacity, if any, in which you provide the evidence (for example, a job title).

However, in the event of a request for information (which includes personal data) being submitted under the Freedom of Information Act 2000, it may be necessary to disclose, in whole or in part,  personal data that you provide. This may include personal data which has previously been removed by the National Assembly for publication purposes (as described in the paragraph above).

If you are providing any information, other than personal data, which you feel is not suitable for public disclosure, or if you do not wish your identity, as author of the evidence, to be disclosed, this must be clearly identified and it is up to you to stipulate which parts should not be published, and to provide a reasoned argument to support this. The National Assembly will take this into account when publishing information or responding to requests for information.