, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
General Ministerial Scrutiny: Minister for Rural Affairs and North Wales, and Trefnydd
I was going to say, it was about two weeks ago, wasn't it? It was two weeks ago. There have been a significant number of responses to it. It's a very big consultation response, which you wouldn't not expect, really, because it affects, obviously, a huge…
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
General Ministerial Scrutiny: Minister for Rural Affairs and North Wales, and Trefnydd
I think the consultation closed—
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
General Ministerial Scrutiny: Minister for Rural Affairs and North Wales, and Trefnydd
I'm going to hand over to Gian Marco.
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
General Ministerial Scrutiny: Minister for Rural Affairs and North Wales, and Trefnydd
If UKIMA came in, yes.
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
General Ministerial Scrutiny: Minister for Rural Affairs and North Wales, and Trefnydd
Yes, it would apply, and the reality would be that eggs fit for sale in one part of the UK would be fit for sale in another part, even if the marketing regulations were different.
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
General Ministerial Scrutiny: Minister for Rural Affairs and North Wales, and Trefnydd
Well, yes, but that was the first thing, do you know what I mean? There had been no discussions with me about it, or anything.
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
General Ministerial Scrutiny: Minister for Rural Affairs and North Wales, and Trefnydd
I don't know. But the first I knew about it, I think I'm right in saying—I don't know if officials knew about it; I'm trying to think, Gian Marco—was I think I got a letter asking did we want to be part of the consultation. I'll have to check up on that, but…
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
General Ministerial Scrutiny: Minister for Rural Affairs and North Wales, and Trefnydd
Well, I haven't had an inter-ministerial group meeting since Thérèse Coffey was the Minister—was the Secretary of State.
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
General Ministerial Scrutiny: Minister for Rural Affairs and North Wales, and Trefnydd
No, we didn't know about it. It hadn't been discussed with me at all. I haven't had—
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
General Ministerial Scrutiny: Minister for Rural Affairs and North Wales, and Trefnydd
No, you don't pre-empt consultations. So, as I say, it might not happen, and it would have been a lot of work for our Welsh poultry sector, at a time when we already had a major consultation being undertaken here. There was no—. I didn't know about it; they…
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
General Ministerial Scrutiny: Minister for Rural Affairs and North Wales, and Trefnydd
Well, you may think that.
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
General Ministerial Scrutiny: Minister for Rural Affairs and North Wales, and Trefnydd
Well, that's a discussion to be had with the retailers. But, as I say, I want to see what—. We don't know that England and Scotland are going to do this, do we? So, let's see what comes out of their consultation. I wasn't part—. I didn't want to be part of…
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
General Ministerial Scrutiny: Minister for Rural Affairs and North Wales, and Trefnydd
But I disagree. For me, people will know that, if they buy Welsh eggs, it will say exactly what it says on the packet.
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
General Ministerial Scrutiny: Minister for Rural Affairs and North Wales, and Trefnydd
So, the consultation that England and Scotland—I was going to say 'are undertaking'—did undertake, because it finished yesterday, I'm very interested to see the responses that come from that consultation. At the moment, no, I certainly don't think we need to…
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
General Ministerial Scrutiny: Minister for Rural Affairs and North Wales, and Trefnydd
I do. I do. I do.
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
General Ministerial Scrutiny: Minister for Rural Affairs and North Wales, and Trefnydd
Well, I think it would be foolish to chuck out seven years of work that has been really carefully considered, built up. Nobody can accuse me of rushing this, you know; we've really taken our time. But, ultimately, BPS—there are not many farmers who say BPS…
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
General Ministerial Scrutiny: Minister for Rural Affairs and North Wales, and Trefnydd
But I think, maybe, next time—that's what I was thinking—it might need to be a bit more targeted, to perhaps not make so many assumptions, to get it—.
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
General Ministerial Scrutiny: Minister for Rural Affairs and North Wales, and Trefnydd
Well, as I say, that is still the plan, but you've got to be pragmatic about it. And I'm sure we will take as long as we need to do it—you've had that commitment. I wouldn't see that commitment changing with a new Government; I think we have to get it right…
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
General Ministerial Scrutiny: Minister for Rural Affairs and North Wales, and Trefnydd
I'm going to hand over to Gian Marco here. This is very technical.
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
General Ministerial Scrutiny: Minister for Rural Affairs and North Wales, and Trefnydd
To be transparent. Because I can tell you now, if I hadn't published it, there would have been a freedom of information request in, and it would have been published, and I didn't want that. I really wanted to be transparent. And if you asked the farming…
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
General Ministerial Scrutiny: Minister for Rural Affairs and North Wales, and Trefnydd
Well, 'looked at' means it will have to be looked at, because we don't want to see a loss of jobs. The whole point of the sustainable farming scheme was to keep our farmers farming, to keep our family farms particularly, not to see what happened in New…
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
General Ministerial Scrutiny: Minister for Rural Affairs and North Wales, and Trefnydd
Well, you know, again, it's part of—
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
General Ministerial Scrutiny: Minister for Rural Affairs and North Wales, and Trefnydd
Well, that will certainly have to be looked at, yes.
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
General Ministerial Scrutiny: Minister for Rural Affairs and North Wales, and Trefnydd
It was used to develop the proposals to minimise the economic impact, but we have made significant changes since the 2022 scheme outline, not least the fact that we're now proposing to pay for maintenance of all existing habitat and woodland, for instance…
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
General Ministerial Scrutiny: Minister for Rural Affairs and North Wales, and Trefnydd
Well, I've always said I don't want to see one job loss. What we want to see are more jobs, and, obviously, more benefits coming forward that will require further jobs in the sector, in the rural communities as well. I think it is really important to say that…
