, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Welsh Government Draft Budget - Minister for Rural Affairs and North Wales, and Trefnydd
Yes. I've met with the manager and the owner myself and raised concerns. They have just recently provided me with some data, which, again, is with officials. But they know the strength of feeling, I think. They know how many people have signed the petition…
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Welsh Government Draft Budget - Minister for Rural Affairs and North Wales, and Trefnydd
Well, it's not specific in it, but obviously, again, you can adapt plans and strategies, and, obviously, animal health and welfare is what it is, and a lot of people have concerns, don't they, about the welfare of greyhounds, and it's absolutely—. We are very…
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Welsh Government Draft Budget - Minister for Rural Affairs and North Wales, and Trefnydd
Thank you. I think the report told me what I knew. I certainly read it with interest. I know that the report is with one of my officials now who's leading on this piece of work. We have a debate scheduled, which I'm very much looking forward to. We have to…
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Welsh Government Draft Budget - Minister for Rural Affairs and North Wales, and Trefnydd
Ah, petitions.
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Welsh Government Draft Budget - Minister for Rural Affairs and North Wales, and Trefnydd
And seeing what we can do to help, yes.
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Welsh Government Draft Budget - Minister for Rural Affairs and North Wales, and Trefnydd
I don't think that we're providing any more financial support. Certainly, officials are working very closely with the third sector and with the shelters. You're right, we've had a bit of a perfect storm, haven't we, because we had the pandemic when many, many…
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Welsh Government Draft Budget - Minister for Rural Affairs and North Wales, and Trefnydd
Yes.
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Welsh Government Draft Budget - Minister for Rural Affairs and North Wales, and Trefnydd
Yes, absolutely they do. So, that was one of the reasons we brought that local authority project together, because it was such a varied picture across Wales. You've got 22 local authorities with 22 ways of doing things, and there was certainly a very, very…
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Welsh Government Draft Budget - Minister for Rural Affairs and North Wales, and Trefnydd
Well, there's never enough money, is there? I think that's fair to say. I wouldn't say that they feed back on whether the budget's enough; they feed back on the work that's done. This work has been led by Monmouthshire County Council, as you know. There's…
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Welsh Government Draft Budget - Minister for Rural Affairs and North Wales, and Trefnydd
They certainly gave their advice, any evidence they’ve got; they provide a steer, I think, on all aspects of the plan. I'm not sure that they feed in directly to the budget discussions, but certainly, we listen to what they say and what they think we need to…
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Welsh Government Draft Budget - Minister for Rural Affairs and North Wales, and Trefnydd
Thank you. So, as you know, I’ve got a five-year animal welfare plan for Wales, and an additional £1 million has been built into the baseline budget last year, and that’s obviously there, and I’ve protected it this year. I would say most of that money…
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Welsh Government Draft Budget - Minister for Rural Affairs and North Wales, and Trefnydd
There’s a huge amount of statistics available in relation to TB that are published—is it quarterly? I think it’s quarterly reports that we have, and we have statistical and epidemiological analysis of the incidence, of the prevalence, of the recurrence, and…
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Welsh Government Draft Budget - Minister for Rural Affairs and North Wales, and Trefnydd
So, it's demand led. It's a very difficult budget because, obviously, we have commitments. We have to compensate our farmers. As you know, we are looking at a refreshed TB eradication delivery plan. You asked me this week again when that's going to be brought…
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Welsh Government Draft Budget - Minister for Rural Affairs and North Wales, and Trefnydd
So, as we go forward—and you asked, 'Is that budget enough?'—obviously, we will have the monitoring and checks in place that we have with all value-for-money assessments of schemes. But, as I say, we are not there yet.
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Welsh Government Draft Budget - Minister for Rural Affairs and North Wales, and Trefnydd
So, as always, with any strategy, you have to consider value for money; that's absolutely—. So, that would then be assessed against other priorities within my portfolio. I think that you are right: there are so many other things that it can link in with, such…
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Welsh Government Draft Budget - Minister for Rural Affairs and North Wales, and Trefnydd
Absolutely.
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Welsh Government Draft Budget - Minister for Rural Affairs and North Wales, and Trefnydd
Yes, I would think so. So, when was it? It will be two years in May, won't it, since the election? When I came back into the portfolio, there was no budget, so we managed to find that budget and that's now in the baseline budget. So, yes, I think that that's…
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Welsh Government Draft Budget - Minister for Rural Affairs and North Wales, and Trefnydd
But the budget's there.
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Welsh Government Draft Budget - Minister for Rural Affairs and North Wales, and Trefnydd
As I say, it is really difficult, but it is a five-year term of Government, and we are committed to bringing forward the community food strategy and delivering on it in the five years. We are only in year two at the moment. I would like it to be much quicker…
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Welsh Government Draft Budget - Minister for Rural Affairs and North Wales, and Trefnydd
One of the difficulties is that the timeline for the community food strategy is being impacted by Peter Fox's Food (Wales) Bill, because the same official is working on both, if you like, at the moment. So, the timeline is being a bit impacted by that at the…
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Welsh Government Draft Budget - Minister for Rural Affairs and North Wales, and Trefnydd
Morning.
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Welsh Government Draft Budget - Minister for Rural Affairs and North Wales, and Trefnydd
That's the impact on the rural investment scheme.
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Welsh Government Draft Budget - Minister for Rural Affairs and North Wales, and Trefnydd
Not transferred.
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Welsh Government Draft Budget - Minister for Rural Affairs and North Wales, and Trefnydd
No, it won't be transferred to mine, but there is a woodland creation scheme.
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Welsh Government Draft Budget - Minister for Rural Affairs and North Wales, and Trefnydd
Can I just say—? Sorry, Chair. We don't have the Farming Connect figure, but we will send that in a note.
