, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Agriculture (Wales) Bill: Evidence session 10
Okay, that's helpful. Thank you, Chair.
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Agriculture (Wales) Bill: Evidence session 10
Is there a recognition now, or more of a recognition—I'm not saying that there wasn't a recognition previously—that farming across Wales has your highland areas, your lowland areas, your coastal areas, and that the universal element of the scheme may not be…
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Agriculture (Wales) Bill: Evidence session 10
Diolch, Cadeirydd. Just quickly, then, with regard to the sustainable farming scheme—I've raised this before—the attractiveness of the scheme to entice entrants into it, and that could be on the financial element of it or the ease of completion of it. Are you…
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Agriculture (Wales) Bill: Evidence session 10
Thank you, Chair.
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Agriculture (Wales) Bill: Evidence session 10
In a Bill.
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Agriculture (Wales) Bill: Evidence session 10
This just happened to be the opportunity that came forward for something that you as a Government were looking to potentially do and this was the vehicle to do it at the earliest opportunity.
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Agriculture (Wales) Bill: Evidence session 10
Great. Just coming back on to the point that you raised when Llyr mentioned a question with regards to forestry earlier and your saying that forestry sits separately to agriculture per se, why then are the felling licences included in the agriculture Bill?…
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Agriculture (Wales) Bill: Evidence session 10
Okay. One of those stakeholders, the Woodland Trust, called for the Bill to include requirements on monitoring and reporting the impact of felling consents equivalent to the requirements for reporting on the SLM objectives. Is that something that you would…
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Agriculture (Wales) Bill: Evidence session 10
Thank you, Chair. Moving on to forestry, forestry stakeholders have raised concerns about how NRW will implement its new tree-felling licence powers. Minister, you know that at the previous committee you attended I raised concerns around NRW being a poacher…
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Agriculture (Wales) Bill: Evidence session 10
Because those concerns by the Tenants Association were raised with us, so if that clarity isn't coming through to the tenants, they're not understanding that, then that needs to be looked at. If you're in agreement that there shouldn't be any issues, yet…
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Agriculture (Wales) Bill: Evidence session 10
Yes, yes, of course.
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Agriculture (Wales) Bill: Evidence session 10
Okay, because there could be some larger landscape changes to landlords' lands that they wouldn't necessarily be too aware of, because it's the farmer directly, it's the tenant who will be seeking the funding. So, it could be that the landlords, further down…
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Agriculture (Wales) Bill: Evidence session 10
Just on that point on the evidence, because tenancies haven't had to go through a scheme similar to this previously, that evidence will be thin on the ground. It won't be until this SFS potentially starts and then the disputes happen between the landlord and…
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Agriculture (Wales) Bill: Evidence session 10
For health settings—yes, that would be great.
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Agriculture (Wales) Bill: Evidence session 10
Okay. That was a sort of blanket response on that. Given the health element of health settings, and the public health element of that, I know we wanted to potentially seek more evidence from Public Health Wales around the policy on this, just to knuckle down…
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Agriculture (Wales) Bill: Evidence session 10
You mentioned local authorities. Can I ask about local health boards, the health sector and hospitals on the use of glue traps, and whether there was more evidence around that, or different evidence accordingly, given the health setting?
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Agriculture (Wales) Bill: Evidence session 10
When ground covering's less, because you can't shoot through dense grasses, et cetera. The thermal imaging won't work, so that's the justification. It can some in some parts of the year, but not other parts of the year, and if you're looking at the breeding…
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Agriculture (Wales) Bill: Evidence session 10
Okay, because the concern was that those predators that have no natural predator will be able to continue, and if you're removing one of the holistic suite of regimes that you've got to control the population numbers, then that would have a detrimental impact…
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Agriculture (Wales) Bill: Evidence session 10
Thank you, Chair. Minister, have you done any assessments around restoration projects—curlew restoration projects, for example, ground-nesting birds—as to what the removal of snares would do to the population numbers? Have any specific assessments made, or is…
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Agriculture (Wales) Bill: Evidence session 10
Okay. Thank you, Chair.
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Agriculture (Wales) Bill: Evidence session 10
Okay. Would you see any value in undertaking a food security assessment, per se, or at intervals to understand where we are?
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Agriculture (Wales) Bill: Evidence session 10
There we are. Fab. Moving on to food security, and apologies, Minister, I'm hogging the floor at the moment, but some feel that food security and food sovereignty need greater emphasis in the Bill's framework. I know that James mentioned previously how food…
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Agriculture (Wales) Bill: Evidence session 10
Okay. In terms of the regularity of reporting, and I know it's an annual report—it's a bit of a Ronseal; it does what it says on the tin there—but are you content with the regularity of reporting that is set out in the Bill and how that will gauge progress?
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Agriculture (Wales) Bill: Evidence session 10
Fab. Moving on to the annual report and the impact report, I'm just wondering if there's value in having separate impact reports and SLM reports, because we did hear the suggestion that one overarching report would be more suitable. But, could preparing a…
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Agriculture (Wales) Bill: Evidence session 10
Just moving on slightly, in terms of the sustainable farming scheme, Farming Connect is mentioned prevalently throughout that—that's a lot of heavy lifting for Farming Connect to do. So, is that going to mean an increase in funding for Farming Connect so that…
