, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Welsh Government Draft Budget 2022-23: Evidence session with the Minister for Rural Affairs and North Wales, and Trefnydd
As I say, officials have recognised that perhaps there hadn't been some monitoring that was required, and lessons have been learnt to make sure that that doesn't happen again. It's really important that all applications are subject to very comprehensive due…
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Welsh Government Draft Budget 2022-23: Evidence session with the Minister for Rural Affairs and North Wales, and Trefnydd
The answer to your last question, I think, is probably 'no'. It would be a retrospective one now, wouldn't it, as it's just about to finish at the end of this month, whilst I appreciate we've still got funding into next year. But I think probably not…
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Welsh Government Draft Budget 2022-23: Evidence session with the Minister for Rural Affairs and North Wales, and Trefnydd
We've certainly done it with coastal erosion, so it certainly could be something that we could look at with river erosion.
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Welsh Government Draft Budget 2022-23: Evidence session with the Minister for Rural Affairs and North Wales, and Trefnydd
Any additional funding is always welcomed. I can honestly say it's not something I've discussed at a four-nation level, to look at such a funding pot, but again, it's something that could be explored.
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Welsh Government Draft Budget 2022-23: Evidence session with the Minister for Rural Affairs and North Wales, and Trefnydd
Certainly there could be. I'm trying to think if, when I was responsible for that, we looked at invest-to-save. I think, sometimes, invest-to-save—. I always felt local authorities were best at invest to save; they sort of ran away with it. Health, perhaps…
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Welsh Government Draft Budget 2022-23: Evidence session with the Minister for Rural Affairs and North Wales, and Trefnydd
It's just that they obviously sit within the Minister for Climate Change's portfolio. But I still have a relationship with them. I used to meet them once a month then, and I'm sure Julie James does, because it is really important they are there, as you say…
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Welsh Government Draft Budget 2022-23: Evidence session with the Minister for Rural Affairs and North Wales, and Trefnydd
I just gave some examples around Glastir, and, obviously, we're looking at the sustainable farming scheme, the design of that, to make sure that fits in. We've extended Glastir, so that contributes to our aims of conserving and enhancing wildlife and…
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Welsh Government Draft Budget 2022-23: Evidence session with the Minister for Rural Affairs and North Wales, and Trefnydd
Thank you, Sarah. So, obviously, it's built into all of our policies and schemes right from the start; it's not a separate thing, it runs absolutely through everything. And we talked about the budget for the climate change portfolio before and how we work…
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Welsh Government Draft Budget 2022-23: Evidence session with the Minister for Rural Affairs and North Wales, and Trefnydd
As I say, really, it's just core policy that we're working on at the current time. Legislation, that comes from within the core budget that we have, and, as I say, the majority of the work that's done is just really staff time and resources, which come from a…
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Welsh Government Draft Budget 2022-23: Evidence session with the Minister for Rural Affairs and North Wales, and Trefnydd
So, really, that's just core policy, so it's work that we're doing at the moment. You may have seen I put out a written statement on Tuesday, I think it was, about the joint fisheries statement that all four UK countries are working on. The work that we do in…
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Welsh Government Draft Budget 2022-23: Evidence session with the Minister for Rural Affairs and North Wales, and Trefnydd
So, the line for marine and fisheries is £4.5 million. That includes £2.1 million for EU replacement funding. As you know, we're in the process of developing a replacement scheme for the European maritime and fisheries fund, so the rest of the budget—. I have…
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Welsh Government Draft Budget 2022-23: Evidence session with the Minister for Rural Affairs and North Wales, and Trefnydd
This is something we are looking at. In fact, Christianne and I were talking about it yesterday, and I've asked if officials can work very closely to see what extra work we may need to do in this area. Obviously, greyhound racing is already covered by the…
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Welsh Government Draft Budget 2022-23: Evidence session with the Minister for Rural Affairs and North Wales, and Trefnydd
Yes. So, we've been doing that now for a couple of years. They were looking—. I don't know, I'm sure colleagues will have been—. I've been out with the RSPCA and you can see how, if they had greater enforcement powers, they could do work that the police…
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Welsh Government Draft Budget 2022-23: Evidence session with the Minister for Rural Affairs and North Wales, and Trefnydd
Yes. As you know, we've got the local authority enforcement project. In fact it was just on Tuesday, I think it was, I met with the lead authority, Monmouthshire, who have been leading on this, and the two officials who have been heading up that project. And…
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Welsh Government Draft Budget 2022-23: Evidence session with the Minister for Rural Affairs and North Wales, and Trefnydd
So, I've allocated £4.8 million to support the animal health and welfare programme for government commitments from my 5 per cent revenue budget increase. That's on top of the baseline of £23 million that already contributes to the commitments that have been…
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Welsh Government Draft Budget 2022-23: Evidence session with the Minister for Rural Affairs and North Wales, and Trefnydd
No. We are doing more testing, so there was a period where we certainly found that we were, unfortunately, having to slaughter more cattle. I'm going to bring Christianne in to explain a little bit more, because it is very technical.
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Welsh Government Draft Budget 2022-23: Evidence session with the Minister for Rural Affairs and North Wales, and Trefnydd
Well, we—. It's one of the options in the new TB eradication programme. Last time when we—. I'm trying to think when we refreshed it. I think it was 2017, previously, that we had to look at this. We have to look at it. We have, I think, a moral duty to do…
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Welsh Government Draft Budget 2022-23: Evidence session with the Minister for Rural Affairs and North Wales, and Trefnydd
So, I think the top date was 2041. I'm looking at Christianne to nod at me—. Yes, 2041, which, I know, it sounds a long time away, but we've built in targets along the way. And, you know, we are making progress. I was really encouraged to see a map last week…
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Welsh Government Draft Budget 2022-23: Evidence session with the Minister for Rural Affairs and North Wales, and Trefnydd
So, you're quite right. That's why our ambition is to eradicate bovine TB, of course. It's one of the reasons why we're refreshing the programme. It's one of the reasons we're always looking for new tests. We're always looking at what vaccines are available…
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Welsh Government Draft Budget 2022-23: Evidence session with the Minister for Rural Affairs and North Wales, and Trefnydd
Okay. So, just to be clear, the European Union have never provided funding [Correction: 'full funding'] for TB compensation. What they did is provide a certain amount of money. I've always had to find, ever since I've been in this portfolio—and probably my…
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Welsh Government Draft Budget 2022-23: Evidence session with the Minister for Rural Affairs and North Wales, and Trefnydd
I was just saying, Vikki, it's very early days. Officials have produced a scoping paper. What I wanted them to do in the beginning was, first of all, to look across Government at all the initiatives we have. Because food and drink is a very diverse area, and…
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Welsh Government Draft Budget 2022-23: Evidence session with the Minister for Rural Affairs and North Wales, and Trefnydd
So, it's very early days. I mentioned the community food strategy earlier on. So, it's a programme for government commitment. Officials have done a scoping paper for me, because, again, this is part of the co-operation agreement. So, it's very early days…
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Welsh Government Draft Budget 2022-23: Evidence session with the Minister for Rural Affairs and North Wales, and Trefnydd
Yes, about the community food strategy. Do you want me to answer that question?
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Welsh Government Draft Budget 2022-23: Evidence session with the Minister for Rural Affairs and North Wales, and Trefnydd
[Inaudible.]—work that the food and drink sector has done. I think you were in the Chamber when I did the oral statement on Tuesday around BlasCymru. I had hoped to launch the vision there, but I managed to do it at the winter fair, which was really…
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Welsh Government Draft Budget 2022-23: Evidence session with the Minister for Rural Affairs and North Wales, and Trefnydd
So, obviously, we will look within the budget again. In relation to animal health and welfare, we've put a further, I think, £4.5 million into that budget expenditure line, so it would come from there.
