, Plenary
Statement by the Deputy First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for Climate Change and Rural Affairs: Restoring nature in Wales
Thank you, Janet, and I'm assuming you were here for my opening statement, when I actually listed the funding, the projects, the volunteers, the expertise, the additional investment, or you may have missed that, in which case I will send you a copy of the…
, Plenary
Statement by the Deputy First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for Climate Change and Rural Affairs: Restoring nature in Wales
I think the potential is huge and it is growing, not only in those aspects such as Local Places for Nature, the local nature networks fund and all of the work that flows from that, because all of that—as well as the incredible contribution by volunteers—is…
, Plenary
Statement by the Deputy First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for Climate Change and Rural Affairs: Restoring nature in Wales
Just on the report, we will obviously respond in full and in due course to the report, but we really welcome the report and the challenge that's in it, because we agree with the challenge. I would simply say, looking to your left, as you're sitting there, to…
, Plenary
Statement by the Deputy First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for Climate Change and Rural Affairs: Restoring nature in Wales
Thank you, Delyth. There were many important points there.
, Plenary
Statement by the Deputy First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for Climate Change and Rural Affairs: Restoring nature in Wales
Peter, look, first of all, thank you very much, because I think, broadly speaking, you’ve supported the additional announcement that we have today for the Nature Networks funding of an additional £2.7 million for 11 projects. I think you’ve supported as well…
, Plenary
Statement by the Deputy First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for Climate Change and Rural Affairs: Restoring nature in Wales
Deputy Presiding Officer, the people of Wales spoke very clearly during the First Minister's listening exercise, and today I'm here to show how we're turning their words into action. In this Senedd term alone, we have invested over £150 million to restore…
, Plenary
Statement by the Deputy First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for Climate Change and Rural Affairs: Restoring nature in Wales
Diolch, Dirprwy Lywydd. Almost 75 years ago to the day, a Labour Government revolutionised people's access to nature by establishing the National Parks and Access to the Countryside Act 1949. For the first time, this gave people public rights of way, national…
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Welsh Government Draft Budget 2025-26: Deputy First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for Climate Change and Rural Affairs
Thank you very much. Thanks, everybody. Thank you.
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Welsh Government Draft Budget 2025-26: Deputy First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for Climate Change and Rural Affairs
Your second point is absolutely correct.
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Welsh Government Draft Budget 2025-26: Deputy First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for Climate Change and Rural Affairs
Yes, they are. So, we’ve mapped it. As you know, the sustainable farming scheme is mapped against the objectives of the SLM objectives. Can they deliver against that? Yes, they can. Can we move from where we are now to the SFS introduction in 2026 with…
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Welsh Government Draft Budget 2025-26: Deputy First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for Climate Change and Rural Affairs
Yes, so, on Farming Connect, we’ve allocated £11.3 million for the year ahead, 2025-26, which mirrors last year, 2024-25. Now, in a spirit of frankness with the committee, the original planned allocation for 2024-25 was £12.6 million. It was reduced to £11.3…
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Welsh Government Draft Budget 2025-26: Deputy First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for Climate Change and Rural Affairs
Sam, look, I'm really happy to take that away and have a look at that with Gian Marco and colleagues and our specialists in the fisheries department. We are aware of it; it’s not the only one, and it’s a function of those annual and sometimes bidding-in…
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Welsh Government Draft Budget 2025-26: Deputy First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for Climate Change and Rural Affairs
Yes.
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Welsh Government Draft Budget 2025-26: Deputy First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for Climate Change and Rural Affairs
What I can say is it's not going to slow it down in the year ahead. So, what we've guaranteed within these budget lines is the work that we know we've got to do in the year ahead with the fisheries management plans, and the evidence and so on there. Going…
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Welsh Government Draft Budget 2025-26: Deputy First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for Climate Change and Rural Affairs
It's a reasonable anticipation. So, as we identify those evidence gaps that we need to fill, as we actually bring forward things like annual stock assessments—this is the meat and drink of fisheries, annual stock assessments, what are the likely yields, what…
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Welsh Government Draft Budget 2025-26: Deputy First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for Climate Change and Rural Affairs
We've learnt some lessons already of the previous stages, so one of the changes that we've made is a reduction from a two-stage process—and this is based, by the way, on stakeholder engagement as well. So, reduction from a two-stage to a one-stage process…
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Welsh Government Draft Budget 2025-26: Deputy First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for Climate Change and Rural Affairs
So, a couple of ways. One of them is a real practical revisiting of stuff that goes back to my previous incarnation—I'm the ultimate recycled Minister. So, one of the things we do need to do is to invest in vessel monitoring, so part of the allocation there…
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Welsh Government Draft Budget 2025-26: Deputy First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for Climate Change and Rural Affairs
Yes. We're confident that that is within the budget.
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Welsh Government Draft Budget 2025-26: Deputy First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for Climate Change and Rural Affairs
So, the budgets we have and the allocations we've agreed on here are sufficient to deliver the programme for government commitments, and I'm being very clear and very specific on that. And that includes, by the way, taking forward the consultation on the…
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Welsh Government Draft Budget 2025-26: Deputy First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for Climate Change and Rural Affairs
We've done over the years support for, for example, abattoirs to transition through installing CCTV cameras—things like this. There isn't a round of that going on at the moment specifically within the budget, but we do always keep these under review, if…
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Welsh Government Draft Budget 2025-26: Deputy First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for Climate Change and Rural Affairs
We're very mindful of that. I'm fortunate to live in a Valleys town that still has a thriving abattoir, which has had support as well through Welsh Government funding, including the installation of equipment and so on over the years, and it's doing really…
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Welsh Government Draft Budget 2025-26: Deputy First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for Climate Change and Rural Affairs
Yes, but I'm going to qualify it slightly. We've delivered two of the four existing PFG commitments already. We will meet that third as well, which is that big piece that we consulted on previously on the licensing regime of homing centres, breeding centres…
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Welsh Government Draft Budget 2025-26: Deputy First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for Climate Change and Rural Affairs
Yes, it will. And thank you for that, because I'll tell you one interesting thing over the last 12 months, 15 months: that has garnered a heck of a lot of interest beyond our borders, including from other Ministers in other parts of the UK who want to come…
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Welsh Government Draft Budget 2025-26: Deputy First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for Climate Change and Rural Affairs
Yes, indeed. My apologies; the slow wheels of Government. But it's a reflection of resources and other things that we've really focused on over the last year, which have been in the headlines as well. But we have been working on that. We have allocated…
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Welsh Government Draft Budget 2025-26: Deputy First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for Climate Change and Rural Affairs
Yes, very much. I'm glad you mentioned the work that was carried forward by Jane Davidson and a range of colleagues and experts, who had the challenge of, if we were to aim for net zero by 2035, what would we have to do. They brought it forward last…
