Joint Ministerial Committee Communique: January 2017

A Plenary meeting of the Joint Ministerial Committee was held on 30 January 2017 in Cardiff City Hall under the chairmanship of the Prime Minister, Rt Hon Theresa May MP.


Attendees and apologies

The participants were:

from HM Government

  • The Prime Minister, Rt Hon Theresa May MP
  • The Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union, Rt Hon David Davis MP
  • The Secretary of State for Trade, Rt Hon Liam Fox MP
  • The Secretary of State for Scotland, Rt Hon David Mundell MP
  • The Secretary of State for Wales, Rt Hon Alun Cairns MP
  • The Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, Rt Hon James Brokenshire and
  • The Minister for the Cabinet Office, Rt Hon Ben Gummer MP

from the Scottish Government

  • The First Minister, Rt Hon Nicola Sturgeon MSP and
  • The Minister for UK Negotiations on Scotland’s Place in Europe, Mike Russell MSP

from the Northern Ireland Executive

  • Rt Hon Arlene Foster and
  • Michelle O’Neill, Minister of Health

from the Welsh Government

  • The First Minister, Rt Hon Carwyn Jones AM and
  • The Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Local Government, Mark Drakeford AM

Items and actions

The three principal agenda items at the meeting were exiting the European Union, trade and investment opportunities, and the state of relations between the administrations.

On the first item, the Prime Minister provided an update on the objectives for the UK’s exit from the EU. The Secretary of State for Exiting the EU provided a progress update and overview of discussions to the Plenary, on the work of the Joint Ministerial Committee EU Negotiations (JMC(EN)).

Consideration of the proposals of the devolved administrations is an ongoing process. Work will need to be intensified ahead of triggering Article 50 and continued at the same pace thereafter.

Ministers explored how the four administrations can most effectively support businesses to trade and invest and identified priority areas for continued collaboration. On the final item, Ministers talked about the principles which should govern relations between the four administrations and remitted further work to the Secretariat. Ministers agreed to meet again in Plenary format later in 2017.

joint_communique_30_jan_2017.pdf
Back to top