What action is the Welsh Government taking to recruit and retain HGV drivers?
Although this matter is not devolved, we have committed to develop a new Logistics and Freight Plan for Wales under our Wales Transport Strategy and will work with the UK Government and other stakeholders to address our priority areas for HGV drivers.
In the meantime, we are supporting those aspiring to become HGV drivers through our ReAct+ programme, which can provide individuals with a vocational training grant of up to £1500. The grant can be used to help with the acquisition of lorry licences and associated qualifications such as the Driver Certificate of Professional Competence (DCPC). The grant can also be used to fund refresher training for former lorry drivers who wish to re-enter the sector and provide a contribution towards wages to employers in the private sector who recruit an eligible worker.
In addition, our Personal Learning Accounts (PLA) programme provides free courses and qualifications to help employed people to upskill or reskill into priority sectors to improve their career and earnings prospects. Additional funding of £10m million was allocated to address key skills and workforce shortages, more than £3 million of which was targeted at training over 850 HGV drivers.
We are also working with Careers Wales to promote HGV driving as a career.