, Legislation, Justice and Constitution Committee
Agriculture (Wales) Bill: Ministerial evidence session
Thank you, all, very much, and we're going to turn our attention directly to the Agriculture (Wales) Bill, which has been in front of another committee as well, but it's now within our remit today. Can I open, Minister, just with the very standard question we…
, Legislation, Justice and Constitution Committee
Agriculture (Wales) Bill: Ministerial evidence session
So we'll move, then, straight ahead to the substantive item in front of us to begin with, which is the session now with Lesley Griffiths MS, Minister for Rural Affairs and North Wales, and Trefnydd, accompanied by your officials. Perhaps I could ask you…
, Legislation, Justice and Constitution Committee
Introductions, apologies, substitutions and declarations of interest
Welcome, everybody, to this meeting of the Legislation, Justice and Constitution Committee on 21 November. Proceedings for the session are being televised on Senedd.tv as normal, and of course the transcript after the event will be there on public record as…
, Legislation, Justice and Constitution Committee
Introductions, apologies, substitutions and declarations of interest
Good afternoon, everyone. Welcome to you all.
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Agriculture (Wales) Bill: Evidence session 10
Thank you.
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Agriculture (Wales) Bill: Evidence session 10
That's great.
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Agriculture (Wales) Bill: Evidence session 10
So, it would be covered in the 'agricultural' definition. Right. Okay, that's really helpful.
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Agriculture (Wales) Bill: Evidence session 10
Thank you, Chair. I'm conscious I'm probably going to wear out my welcome in this committee and never be invited back, but when we were discussing earlier on ancillary activities, and I don't want to go over the same ground again, but, as the discussion went…
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Agriculture (Wales) Bill: Evidence session 10
Oh, okay. Thank you.
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Agriculture (Wales) Bill: Evidence session 10
Yes. What James was just saying just stole my rationale for what I'm now going to ask you. These opportunities very rarely come forward. You've chosen to use this opportunity to involve forestry within it, and this has been welcomed by many of the…
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Agriculture (Wales) Bill: Evidence session 10
Right.
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Agriculture (Wales) Bill: Evidence session 10
So, is your argument that it is not necessary to have that call for a duty placed on the Bill to bring it forward? Because, from what you're saying, many of these minimum standards are already in place. There's an act of consolidation that you need to do in…
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Agriculture (Wales) Bill: Evidence session 10
Do you want to add to that?
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Agriculture (Wales) Bill: Evidence session 10
Thank you, Chair. I want to turn to national minimum standards. It's quite noticeable how many of the external stakeholders, from environmental stakeholders, farming unions, the BVA and others, want to get their teeth into national minimum standards, and…
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Agriculture (Wales) Bill: Evidence session 10
Okay, thank you.
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Agriculture (Wales) Bill: Evidence session 10
I just want to ask, on that working group, have you found space on that working group for all those parties you described, including not just those people who farm it, critical as they are, but also—and to draw on local examples—people like boards of…
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Agriculture (Wales) Bill: Evidence session 10
These are people who access, in common, common land and some of them have different objectives. And we often note from our own areas, someone to do the very best by that land and the best by, not just farming, but also by the wider environmental remit they…
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Agriculture (Wales) Bill: Evidence session 10
Fantastic. In which case, one of the things that's been put forward—and I wonder whether you think that that group should be considering this—is rather than the revolver and a bottle of whiskey in a locked room, actually having some sort of external…
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Agriculture (Wales) Bill: Evidence session 10
Yes. I'm really glad to hear that you've actually established a group specifically on common land.
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Agriculture (Wales) Bill: Evidence session 10
We didn't act on it.
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Agriculture (Wales) Bill: Evidence session 10
It was a suggestion made to me—it wasn't mine.
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Agriculture (Wales) Bill: Evidence session 10
About 15 per cent. So, the importance of common land to this is key. The challenge with common land, of course, is getting people to work together on a spatial basis to do it. Once described to me when I was environment Minister in Westminster tackling issues…
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Agriculture (Wales) Bill: Evidence session 10
Okay. Right. Okay, there we are. Right. So, I'm slightly out of date. So, slightly more. So, we're looking at 15 per cent, you say?
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Agriculture (Wales) Bill: Evidence session 10
Slightly more.
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Agriculture (Wales) Bill: Evidence session 10
Well done, colleagues, on that. Fantastic [Laughter.] Let me turn to the issue I was going to raise with you, which was to do with common land. Can I just ask for clarification, as we go into this, roughly speaking, it's 7, 8 or 9 per cent of Wales's land…
