, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Agriculture (Wales) Bill: Evidence session 10
There are real challenges.
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Agriculture (Wales) Bill: Evidence session 10
Yes, it's one of the six.
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Agriculture (Wales) Bill: Evidence session 10
No. And common land does really provide us with a massive opportunity to bring forward SLM objectives—you're quite right. As we say, it is about 15 per cent, so, it is really important. As one of the six working groups, I've established a common land working…
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Agriculture (Wales) Bill: Evidence session 10
Yes, well, okay; I'm not going to take that suggestion forward.
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Agriculture (Wales) Bill: Evidence session 10
So, I'm not going to take your suggestion forward, if that's okay. [Laughter.]
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Agriculture (Wales) Bill: Evidence session 10
About 15, I think, yes.
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Agriculture (Wales) Bill: Evidence session 10
I think it's more.
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Agriculture (Wales) Bill: Evidence session 10
Yes.
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Agriculture (Wales) Bill: Evidence session 10
Yes. I'm going to bring Dorian in.
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Agriculture (Wales) Bill: Evidence session 10
I'm going to pass over to James.
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Agriculture (Wales) Bill: Evidence session 10
No. I said, if they could bring forward—.They've got to provide the evidence, which they haven't been able to provide up to now, and certainly, in the response to the White Paper that James has just referred to, there wasn't the evidence there.
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Agriculture (Wales) Bill: Evidence session 10
Six working groups. It wasn't an afterthought—it was very much a part of that. And all the working groups have come together. They all started this summer. So it's not an afterthought at all. And as I say, we have continually taken—. Well, I've met with them…
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Agriculture (Wales) Bill: Evidence session 10
No. We've set up, is it six or seven working groups?
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Agriculture (Wales) Bill: Evidence session 10
Because, at the moment, we can't see any barriers to that. But if they came along with evidence that showed that that was the case, then obviously we would look at it.
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Agriculture (Wales) Bill: Evidence session 10
Yes.
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Agriculture (Wales) Bill: Evidence session 10
Well—.
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Agriculture (Wales) Bill: Evidence session 10
I'm happy to look—. If I saw evidence, I could bring forward amendments, yes.
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Agriculture (Wales) Bill: Evidence session 10
I mentioned that we hadn't seen the evidence to support the issue that Huw raised. I don't want to pre-empt, but the group could provide that evidence, in which case, 'yes', but if it doesn't, 'no'—if that makes sense.
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Agriculture (Wales) Bill: Evidence session 10
The working groups have been set up in this part of the year, but that doesn't mean to say we haven't been taking evidence; I've had several meetings with the TFA, for instance. The working groups have been set up now to, obviously, help us not just with the…
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Agriculture (Wales) Bill: Evidence session 10
I thought it very strange.
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Agriculture (Wales) Bill: Evidence session 10
Going back to the legislation you refer to, the definition of 'agriculture' in that Act is non-exhaustive, so we didn't consider it would act as a barrier to farmers being able to access.
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Agriculture (Wales) Bill: Evidence session 10
No. I think we've already, under the current legislation, got provision for a general dispute resolution, for instance. So, I don't think any additional procedures really are necessary.
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Agriculture (Wales) Bill: Evidence session 10
We discussed this the last time I was in front of committee, because what we did was we sought feedback on this issue in the agriculture White Paper, and there was just no substantive evidence to suggest that provision should be extended to farm business…
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Agriculture (Wales) Bill: Evidence session 10
No, mainly because we've got the common framework. We've got the agricultural support provisional framework, which, again, going back to the animal health framework I referred to before, all four UK Ministers signed off. So, I think the mechanism is there. I…
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Agriculture (Wales) Bill: Evidence session 10
Yes.
