Lesley Griffiths: Yes.
Lesley Griffiths: Yes.
Lesley Griffiths: I haven’t had specific discussions with my counterpart, but my officials work very closely, particularly, as you’ll be aware, the chief veterinary officers—the four of them across the UK—work incredibly closely together. We are now in a position to identify and agree three categories of TB areas across Wales, based on incident levels. This will allow us to tailor and implement...
Lesley Griffiths: Diolch, Presiding Officer. As Members will have seen from the latest business statement, I will be making an oral statement on a refreshed approach to TB eradication on 18 October. Therefore, I don’t intend to go into too much detail today. However, since I became the Cabinet Secretary for Environment and Rural Affairs in May, I have made very clear my intention to refresh the TB programme...
Lesley Griffiths: I have had the opportunity to familiarise myself with previous correspondence. I've also had discussions with officials about it. I haven't discussed it directly with DEFRA, but my officials have and it's something we're looking at. You will also be aware that my predecessor brought forward a review of Hybu Cig Cymru, and, again, we're looking at the levy in aspects of that as well.
Lesley Griffiths: I was very pleased to visit Halen Môn over the summer; I managed to harvest some sea salt myself in a very fetching hairnet, but it was great to see such a wonderful company, and the owners are just so dynamic. Again, it was they who told me how much they value that protected food status. I'm very happy to continue to support the concept to which you refer. Brexit has thrown up lots of...
Lesley Griffiths: Thank you. It is good to see the Member for Caerphilly carrying on the tradition of his predecessor in relation to Caerphilly cheese. I think protected food names have huge benefits for Welsh products. As you say, we are actually supporting eight new applications, one of which is traditional Caerphilly cheese. The EU referendum result makes no difference to the processing of applications. So,...
Lesley Griffiths: I am currently considering the implications with stakeholders. Ninety-five per cent of Welsh food and drink is sold domestically, and 5 per cent is exported. Ninety per cent of this 5 per cent is exported to the EU. It is my intention to safeguard and grow this trade by maintaining access to the single market and through Welsh Government support.
Lesley Griffiths: Yes, absolutely. I very much enjoyed my visit, despite the very heavy rain on that day in August. What struck me about that scheme was the total partnership working in the community, from your environmental organisations to the schools to just local people who came along and helped. To see the thousands of trees that they’d planted was really fantastic.
Lesley Griffiths: We are supporting catchment scale control work on Himalayan balsam through local action groups. We’ve also supported the release of a new pathogenic fungus at five sites across Wales, with the Centre for Agriculture and Biosciences International, as a biocontrol agent to tackle this pest.
Lesley Griffiths: I’m very keen to engage positively with them. I’m sorry that they haven’t had a response over the bridge of the election, but I’ll certainly look into that for you. I’m not sure if you said it was our goal to plant 1,000 hectares—it’s actually our goal to plant 10,000 hectares of new woodland by March 2020, and I have asked officials to give me assurance that that will be the...
Lesley Griffiths: Yes, absolutely. I wasn’t aware of it particularly in New York, but I would be very happy to ask my officials to give me a briefing and also speak to Julie about it. [Interruption.] Or go there—I wasn’t going to say that. [Laughter.]
Lesley Griffiths: The Glastir woodland creation scheme provides financial support for new woodland creation in both rural and urban areas of Wales. Glastir woodland restoration supports replanting of woodland infected by phytophthora ramorum. The Welsh Government opened a further window for expressions of interest for both schemes on 30 August.
Lesley Griffiths: Yes, thank you, and I certainly will commend Tesco. I visited one in my own constituency, supported by Tesco. We are very much committed to working with local communities in order to enhance green spaces in our urban areas.
Lesley Griffiths: Yes, thank you. The Cynefin programme piloted a new way, I think, of involving communities in the local delivery programmes and services that were intended to benefit them. We’ve now extended our contract with Severn Wye Energy Agency for a 12-month period in order to take forward a delivery support programme across Wales that will build on the learning and the expertise that was developed...
Lesley Griffiths: I haven’t done any specific work with the FE sector. I’m aware the example I gave you was with the HE sector, and we’re doing quite a lot across several universities. But I’ll certainly look into it and write to the Member.
Lesley Griffiths: Thank you. Our policy is to deliver programmes that bring together local people, groups, businesses and organisations to deliver services to improve where they live or work. Empowering people to protect their own surroundings helps us tackle environmental inequality. I also issued a written statement yesterday on the launch of a 12-week consultation on how Wales can do better in the...
Lesley Griffiths: I think there is probably quite a bit of work going on in the background, so I’d certainly consider doing that, but you are quite right, it uses satellite precision data, remote sensing devices, proximal data-gathering technology, and it does enable people to make decisions in a different way. I think you’re right; we need to optimise the returns on the inputs, so I’ll certainly...
Lesley Griffiths: I had my first meeting this week in relation to to the Swansea bay tidal lagoon, but I didn’t look in depth at the point you raise. But I’m very happy to write to you—to do so and to write you.
Lesley Griffiths: Thank you. Precision agriculture is one of the many modern farming practices that make production more efficient. The Welsh Government supports this through Farming Connect. Examples include toward precision farming in ruminant livestock, run at Aberystwyth University Gogerddan farm, and variable-rate fertiliser use in grassland, at Troed y Rhiw farm in Aberaeron.
