, Plenary
Questions to the Deputy First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for Climate Change and Rural Affairs
Since the UK Government published their budget on 30 October, Welsh Government officials have had numerous discussions with the UK Government on this matter.
, Plenary
Questions to the Deputy First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for Climate Change and Rural Affairs
Yes, Delyth, you’re absolutely right. And the biodiversity restoration piece goes hand in hand with the climate adaptation and resilience piece. We need to do both together. I had significant challenge from that committee when I set out our working timetable…
, Plenary
Questions to the Deputy First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for Climate Change and Rural Affairs
Yes, thank you, Delyth. My predecessor was really pleased, with the support of colleagues as well, to establish that 2035 challenge group. They’ve done remarkable work, they really have. But even they recognise—and I pay tribute to Jane Davidson in chairing…
, Plenary
Questions to the Deputy First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for Climate Change and Rural Affairs
Yes, absolutely. Thank you so much for raising this on the floor today in the middle of these hundreds of climate conversations that we're having right across Wales this week, with young people, older people, community groups, business, commerce, academics…
, Plenary
Questions to the Deputy First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for Climate Change and Rural Affairs
Thank you, Janet. I'm worried, Llywydd, that we might run out of people to people these task and finish groups. We might run out of the great Welsh will to, actually, work with us on it. But, look, I do take the serious point behind this. This is the exact…
, Plenary
Questions to the Deputy First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for Climate Change and Rural Affairs
Thank you, Janet. I absolutely stand by that. Anybody who owns a reservoir on their land, big or small, that is caught within the regulations needs to be very clear on their responsibilities. It's an onerous responsibility to take on the maintenance and the…
, Plenary
Questions to the Deputy First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for Climate Change and Rural Affairs
Thank you very much, Janet, for that question. Reservoir safety is a key issue for Welsh Government and the opportunity has arisen to work with the UK Government on an England-and-Wales basis to review the whole landscape of the regulation of reservoirs…
, Plenary
Questions to the Deputy First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for Climate Change and Rural Affairs
Joyce, thank you very much for that question and, again, I recognise your sustained advocacy for the potential of this sector and particularly for Câr-y-Môr. And indeed, Câr-y-Môr, the first commercial seaweed farm within Wales, located off Ramsey Sound in St…
, Plenary
Questions to the Deputy First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for Climate Change and Rural Affairs
Thank you very much, Joel, and I notice your consistent advocacy for the potential of the seaweed sector for all of those diverse applications, which do have really exciting potential. We have noted there is significant interest in the potential benefits of…
, Plenary
Questions to the Deputy First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for Climate Change and Rural Affairs
There is significant interest in seaweed farming in Wales for a range of purposes. We are supportive of industry-led growth of the aquaculture sector and would welcome any proposals from industry that deliver growth in our coastal communities whilst aligning…
, Plenary
Questions to the Deputy First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for Climate Change and Rural Affairs
Thank you, it's a really important point, and you, like me, who love the Mumbles, recognise the importance of this work, and getting it done in a timely manner as well. It's a significant piece of work and it does cause disruption to some extent. Indeed, we…
, Plenary
Questions to the Deputy First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for Climate Change and Rural Affairs
Yes. The coastal risk management programme construction scheme at Mumbles is progressing at pace. The risk management authority have confirmed that the construction is due to complete in April 2025.
, Plenary
Joint Debate on Committee Reports: The Sustainable Farming Scheme and Farming Connect
A minute to conclude. Well, let me just say that I will be coming back. I hope to come back in fairly short order to provide a further update, not in response to the committee reports, but just to give an update on as far as we've got. I genuinely think that…
, Plenary
Joint Debate on Committee Reports: The Sustainable Farming Scheme and Farming Connect
Look, ultimately, James, in my ideal scenario, we get to a point where—it's not quite a rose garden moment, because there are some infamous rose garden moments—we all walk out together and we say, 'This may not be perfect—.' This is the classic Churchill…
, Plenary
Joint Debate on Committee Reports: The Sustainable Farming Scheme and Farming Connect
Yes, you were. [Laughter.]
, Plenary
Joint Debate on Committee Reports: The Sustainable Farming Scheme and Farming Connect
—on the officials group—I will give way in a moment, to see what your interesting riposte to this is—including on that group, the Tenant Farmers Association, or on the officials group and the ministerial round-table, the young farmers' clubs, the ones you…
, Plenary
Joint Debate on Committee Reports: The Sustainable Farming Scheme and Farming Connect
Well, Llywydd, I'm really worried now that, with my use of 'damned if you do, damned if you don't', we've now had—one, two, three, four—five uses of that word in this and we're going to be reprimanded. But, look, we are actually working forward very much in…
, Plenary
Joint Debate on Committee Reports: The Sustainable Farming Scheme and Farming Connect
This has been a fascinating debate. I think we've had more than 10 contributions. If this was in Westminster terms, that would be over 100 MPs speaking in a debate of this nature. It's quite a testament to the importance that Members put on the committee…
, Plenary
Joint Debate on Committee Reports: The Sustainable Farming Scheme and Farming Connect
Thank you very much, Llywydd, and thank you to the committees and thank you to everyone who has spoken in today's debate.
, Plenary
Joint Debate on Committee Reports: The Sustainable Farming Scheme and Farming Connect
I'm just really interested in the point that there's been no meaningful engagement. After the Conservative Party were urging me to take some time to go through this properly and to meaningfully engage, how does he explain that to the NFU, the FUW, the Country…
, Plenary
Joint Debate on Committee Reports: The Sustainable Farming Scheme and Farming Connect
Could I intervene?
, Plenary
Topical Questions
Indeed, and, listen, thank you for the way in which you've phrased those questions, Andrew; that's really helpful. First of all, one thing to be very clear of—and this is a genuine point—is we don't comment in detail on discussions between a sponsored body…
, Plenary
Topical Questions
Thank you.
, Plenary
Topical Questions
Llyr, thank you very much for those questions. First of all, there's an awareness of this issue right across Government. So, every Cabinet Secretary is aware of this and every sponsored body is aware of their direct responsibilities. I should say very, very…
, Plenary
Topical Questions
In trying to be absolutely clear, we made repeated overtures by e-mail, telephone and indeed direct personal message to say could we speak about this, if you wanted to, to go through this in detail before we brought it to the floor. So those have been done to…
