, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Welsh Government Draft Budget 2024-25: Minister for Rural Affairs and North Wales, and Trefnydd
No?
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Welsh Government Draft Budget 2024-25: Minister for Rural Affairs and North Wales, and Trefnydd
Is that a bit of a ministerial frustration for you that NRW sits outside of your portfolio?
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Welsh Government Draft Budget 2024-25: Minister for Rural Affairs and North Wales, and Trefnydd
Okay. In terms, then, of moving that on, you're content with the amount of funding there, but how are you ensuring that you're getting value for money from NRW in the management and the role that NRW play as a regulator in the water regs?
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Welsh Government Draft Budget 2024-25: Minister for Rural Affairs and North Wales, and Trefnydd
Okay, thank you. In terms of assessments being taken or undertaken to determine whether the £1 million funding for 2023-24 and the £1.6 million funding for 2024-25 remain appropriate for the enforcing of the agricultural pollution regulations, are you—?
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Welsh Government Draft Budget 2024-25: Minister for Rural Affairs and North Wales, and Trefnydd
So, that up to £20 million is distributed across—
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Welsh Government Draft Budget 2024-25: Minister for Rural Affairs and North Wales, and Trefnydd
Yes, okay. That's helpful. In a previous scrutiny committee, we've mentioned the £20 million from the co-op agreement for support for farmers. Now, it was a bit unclear; the terminology was changed to 'up to £20 million'. Where is that £20 million or up to…
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Welsh Government Draft Budget 2024-25: Minister for Rural Affairs and North Wales, and Trefnydd
Okay, thank you. Moving on to ag pollution, and I appreciate your patience on my questions there, Minister, in terms of the service level agreement with Natural Resources Wales for enforcing the ag pollution regulations change since the introduction of the…
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Welsh Government Draft Budget 2024-25: Minister for Rural Affairs and North Wales, and Trefnydd
Okay. You mentioned there that your working baseline is the £238 million, which you've maintained for the basic payment scheme; I would argue that it should be the £337 million, which is the continuity of the common agricultural policy funding, rather than…
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Welsh Government Draft Budget 2024-25: Minister for Rural Affairs and North Wales, and Trefnydd
No. Okay. So, have you had any correspondence with UK Treasury as to what figure you would like, going forward? You've mentioned that UK Government may change the funding formula for agriculture going forward, but have you made any representations to HM…
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Welsh Government Draft Budget 2024-25: Minister for Rural Affairs and North Wales, and Trefnydd
Thank you very much, Chair. Just a final point on the sustainable farming scheme, Minister, if I may, before moving on to ag pollution regulations. I was just wondering—. You mentioned inflation: what sort of figure, roughly, do you have in mind for delivery…
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Welsh Government Draft Budget 2024-25: Minister for Rural Affairs and North Wales, and Trefnydd
Okay, there we are; thank you, Chair.
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Welsh Government Draft Budget 2024-25: Minister for Rural Affairs and North Wales, and Trefnydd
So, all of that is allocated towards the definition as put forward in the CSR—the department is confident.
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Welsh Government Draft Budget 2024-25: Minister for Rural Affairs and North Wales, and Trefnydd
Sorry, yes, no problem. So, the comprehensive spending review offered funding over a three-year period. The calculations of how much is left of that is £336.6 million minus the BPS, which leaves a total of £101.6 million. Is that £101.6 million being used, as…
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Welsh Government Draft Budget 2024-25: Minister for Rural Affairs and North Wales, and Trefnydd
So, someone would be able to work out what a working budget for that would be. If they were able to calculate what those 3,000 or so contracts were worth, they'd be able to back-calculate how much that budget would be. Just quickly, a final question before I…
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Welsh Government Draft Budget 2024-25: Minister for Rural Affairs and North Wales, and Trefnydd
That's £2 million.
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Welsh Government Draft Budget 2024-25: Minister for Rural Affairs and North Wales, and Trefnydd
I think the budget is important, because if it's not financially viable for farmers to undertake the contacts that will be undertaken, then farmers won't be signing up to the Habitat Wales scheme once offered those contracts, so more land will be lost to…
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Welsh Government Draft Budget 2024-25: Minister for Rural Affairs and North Wales, and Trefnydd
So, there are no working figures pencilled in, nothing official, but is there an allocation within your arithmetic that you think, 'Right, x is being put aside for the Habitat Wales scheme'?
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Welsh Government Draft Budget 2024-25: Minister for Rural Affairs and North Wales, and Trefnydd
Okay. Moving on to the Habitat Wales scheme, I'm just wondering what the budget is for the delivery of the Habitat Wales scheme.
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Welsh Government Draft Budget 2024-25: Minister for Rural Affairs and North Wales, and Trefnydd
Is there any fear that the industry may see that as prejudging the determination of the results of the consultation around tree planting?
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Welsh Government Draft Budget 2024-25: Minister for Rural Affairs and North Wales, and Trefnydd
Is that a reason for the increase in capital, for projects such as tree planting?
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Welsh Government Draft Budget 2024-25: Minister for Rural Affairs and North Wales, and Trefnydd
You think £100 million is—
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Welsh Government Draft Budget 2024-25: Minister for Rural Affairs and North Wales, and Trefnydd
So, is that £100 million going to be sufficient to help with the transition to SFS, due to launch in January of next year?
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Welsh Government Draft Budget 2024-25: Minister for Rural Affairs and North Wales, and Trefnydd
Okay. Moving on to the rural investment schemes, which you've also mentioned in your answer previously to the Member for Blaenau Gwent, the rural investment scheme has seen resource allocation reductions. You've mentioned a figure of £100 million as the…
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Welsh Government Draft Budget 2024-25: Minister for Rural Affairs and North Wales, and Trefnydd
So, in those impact assessments, as you've called them, what was the conclusion? What was the material impact that you determined as a department of the inflationary costs to BPS?
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Welsh Government Draft Budget 2024-25: Minister for Rural Affairs and North Wales, and Trefnydd
Can I just come back on that point, then? If you know it's going to have an impact, have you undertaken an impact assessment to fully understand what impact of BPS being maintained at its current level will have? The NFU's arithmetic is that every £1 spent on…
