To receive Declarations of personal and prejudicial interest (if any) from Members / Officers.     

None.

To receive for approval the Minutes of 15/10/2018

RESOLVED:                    That the Minutes of a meeting of Cardiff Capital Region City Deal Joint Scrutiny Committee dated 15 October 2018, be approved as a true and accurate record.

Invitees:

Kellie Beirne - CCRCD Programme Director

Elizabeth Weale - Solicitor  / Operational Manager

Hazel Duke - CSC Project Manager

Cllr Peter Fox - CCRCD Cabinet Member

The Programme Director advised members that further to discussions at the site visit prior to the meeting, IQE was a listed company and subject to a non-disclosure agreement. She advised that members should consider excluding the press and public if they wanted to discuss information contained within the non-disclosure agreement.

Cllr Peter Fox, Vice Chair of the Cardiff Capital Region City Deal Cabinet gave a presentation “An Overview of the Compound Semiconductor (CSC) Project and wider Cluster opportunities”. The presentation gave an overview of the CCR City Deal commitment to Compound Semiconductors, the market opportunity of CSC’s, IQE PLC, the importance of the Technology Readiness Level in all aspects of production, the cluster opportunity and the potential economic impact which could lead to the world’s first Compound Semiconductor Cluster. He added that industries depended on CSC’s and this could turn around the fortune of SE Wales.

A member asked if the property at Celtic Way Enterprise Park was in an assisted area under state aid rules. The Vice Chair explained that the whole deal was state aid compliant. A large part of Wales would comply however, the ratios varied. IQE headed a consortium which approached WG and argued the case based on global importance as a sector. They had partial state aid exemption and this was important for European growth. Following BREXIT they would comply with the British equivalent of state aid rules.

A Member was concerned at the drop in share price of the IQE Foundry and stated that he had seen in a report, yet to be published by the Wales Audit Office that they had been critical of IQE. He stated that he had asked officers at the earlier site visit if they were able to provide some reassurances around this.  Officers at the Foundry had earlier confirmed that IQE had made a public statement in relation to their share movement which was publically available on their website. Officers also stated that a commercially sensitive report had been prepared and shared with Regional cabinet to address the concerns around the share price.  Officers added that they would need to seek further advice from IQE as to whether this report could be shared with the Joint Scrutiny Committee at a later date which would need to be held in closed session with the press and public excluded. The Scrutiny Officer confirmed that on behalf of the Joint Committee she would approach the CSC Project Manager to request the report and advise members of the decision. 

The Programme Director explained that CCRCD were not shareholders, they had a landlord function, and leased the building to IQE as the tenant. If member’s required further information regarding share prices, each authority had a representative officer or member elected to the board of CSC Foundry Ltd. Up to date information on share prices and the supply chain had been presented to the last meeting and they should be able to access this information through their representative.

The Programme Director confirmed that the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 9.

Invitees:

Kellie Beirne - CCRCD Programme Director

Elizabeth Weale - Solicitor  / Operational Manager

Hazel Duke - CSC Project Manager

Cllr Peter Fox - CCRCD Cabinet Member

RESOLVED:              

The Cardiff Capital Region City Deal Joint Overview and Scrutiny Committee noted the Joint Working Agreement Business Plan.     

Members discussed adding the following items to their Forward Work Programme:

·      Education – Developing a Strategy for young people and how this could be built into the curriculum and ensuring that people had access to these opportunities

·      Marketing and advertising of the IQE to customers and the local community.  How their work was promoted to the local community so they were aware of local opportunities

Members asked for the item, the South Wales Metro, to be scheduled for a future meeting.  The programme director for the CCRCD confirmed that Scrutiny of this item should be undertaken jointly with the Welsh Government and the Transport Authority and that Welsh Government would be expected to lead on this.

Members were concerned at the budget allocated for the Joint Overview and Scrutiny Committee and stated that they were severely restricted in how they could carry out their role as Joint Scrutiny Members as the budget only allowed for up to 4 meetings per year and there was no allocated budget for the training of members.  Members therefore recommended that the CCRCD Joint Cabinet revisit and reconsider the budget allocated to allow members greater flexibility to carry out their role and have additional meetings as the need arose.

Training schedule

Members asked to receive training on the role of a Joint Overview and Scrutiny Committee Member. 

Joint Scrutiny Chair Training to be arranged for Chair and Vice Chair of JOSC

The meeting closed at 16.05 pm.