Lesley Griffiths: You’ll be aware of our recently published White Paper, ‘Securing Wales’ Future’, I’m sure. That makes very clear that we need a fairer rebalancing of UK fishing quotas. Welsh vessels only hold about 1 per cent of the quotas in the Welsh areas of interest, and that simply is not good enough. We do expect the amount of fish available to Welsh vessels to increase. The Secretary of...
Lesley Griffiths: I was going to say I don’t think it was that recent, it was probably about December. I will have to write to the Member regarding the progress that we’ve made over the first part of this year.
Lesley Griffiths: I can absolutely assure the Member, regarding sustainable fishing, that that is absolutely at the top of the agenda. I haven’t had those discussions yet with the Secretary of State. You’ll be aware he’s only been in post a couple of weeks and I just had a very brief conversation. He did make it clear that he’s coming to the Royal Welsh Show. So, those are discussions that I’m sure...
Lesley Griffiths: We will consider a test to remove intervention on the 50 to 60 farms that have a persistent TB breakdown after a full veterinary epidemiological investigation has shown that cattle measures have been fully applied, and that badgers are the probable source of infection.
Lesley Griffiths: On your latter point, yes, it will be only the infected badgers and I do think it will be good for the badger population. I think I made that very clear in my statement on bovine TB last week. In relation to the 50 to 60 farms, those are the farms that are in that chronic TB breakdown—some of them for 16 or 17 years—that will have these bespoke plans. So, at the current time, we have...
Lesley Griffiths: I issued new guidance this month and will follow it up with a letter to all incoming local authority administrations next week, highlighting their air quality management duties and the importance of following the principles of our future generations legislation, and of meeting deadlines setting guidance for reporting and action planning.
Lesley Griffiths: You’re right; I did issue policy guidance on 15 June because that coincided with Clean Air Day. So, that was the reason for doing that, and I wanted, as I say, to bring their management regimes into line. I will be writing to them again next week, so specifically in Swansea’s case, I can ask those specific points.
Lesley Griffiths: Thank you. I picked up today in the media that the leader of Cardiff city council was talking about the need for more public transport use and cycling in relation to the issue you raise. We know transport, really, does not help with air quality, particularly in urban areas. We had a debate yesterday on decarbonisation of the public sector. Well, this is so much a part of the decarbonisation...
Lesley Griffiths: I agree with you, but I have to say we do need to do more to tackle emissions from vehicles in urban areas, so I very much welcome measures that do help reduce public exposure to air pollution, and that includes infrastructure projects such as you refer to. I know the Morfa distributor road in Swansea is due to be completed in the very near future. That’s been supported by Welsh Government...
Lesley Griffiths: Thank you. The river basin management plans, published in 2015, include detailed assessments of all Welsh rivers and measures that we are taking to improve their quality. Currently 37 per cent of our rivers achieve good status under the water framework directive and we aim to increase this to 42 per cent by 2021.
Lesley Griffiths: Certainly, in the year I’ve been in this portfolio, we’ve seen an increase in the number, particularly, of significant pollution incidents in our watercourses, most notably in the Teifi in west Wales and also the Honddu in Monmouthshire. I do think NRW are fit for purpose. I expect them to fully use their legal powers in dealing with these cases. I know they are sometimes frustrated that...
Lesley Griffiths: The last time I discussed this with NRW—which is probably about five weeks ago, I would say—certainly, they weren’t, still, in a position to publish it. I’d be very happy to put it on the agenda for my next meeting with NRW and update Adam Price via a letter.
Lesley Griffiths: Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer, and can I start by thanking the Members for tabling this debate this afternoon and all those who’ve contributed to the debate? Much of what we’ve discussed today does chime with my energy statement of December last year around using energy more efficiently, moving to low-carbon generation, levering in more resources, and gaining economic benefit from...
Lesley Griffiths: Diolch, Llywydd. I very much welcome the committee’s report, and would like to thank Members for—. It really is an excellent report and I think that’s reflected in the fact that I’ve been able to accept, or accept in principle, all the recommendations. So, I think we’re already making progress on some of the recommendations. I, too, would like to thank Mark Reckless for his work as...
Lesley Griffiths: In Wales we have some of the best water quality in Europe, with our bathing waters having the highest quality in mainland Britain with 45 blue flags awarded this year. We also have plans in place to further improve the quality of our streams and rivers over the next 4 years.
Lesley Griffiths: ‘Planning Policy Wales’ and technical advice notes provide a robust policy framework to inform land use planning decisions in Wales. These are supplemented with practice and procedural guidance and information when appropriate. We keep our planning policies up to date through regular reviews, informed by relevant evidence and consultation.
Lesley Griffiths: We are supporting domestic, business and public sector consumers with a range of measures to increase energy efficiency. Support includes our Welsh Government Warm Homes programme, the Welsh quality housing standard, Green Growth Wales support for the public sector and support to businesses through Business Wales.
Lesley Griffiths: The Welsh Government recently published for consultation ‘Taking Forward Wales’ Sustainable Management of Natural Resources’. This paper includes proposals on improving opportunities for public access to the outdoors. The consultation was launched on 21 June. It will run for 12 weeks and close on 13 September.
Lesley Griffiths: Diolch, Llywydd. I note the terms of the petition and heed the calls being made to better support live music venues and the night-time economy. I have commenced a review of ‘Planning Policy Wales’ to ensure it best fits with the intentions of our well-being goals. I’ve also stated my intention to include a clear and explicit reference to the agent-of-change principle. The planning...
Lesley Griffiths: Thank you. Local authorities may enforce action in relation to dangerous structures through the Building Act 1984. Section 77, ‘Dangerous building’, is used where there is the potential for a dangerous structure; section 78, ‘Dangerous building—emergency measures’, is used when immediate action is required to remove the danger.
