Part of 1. 1. Questions to the Cabinet Secretary for Environment and Rural Affairs – in the Senedd at 1:51 pm on 14 December 2016.
Well, we are making progress. I mean that as a compliment. Well, I have to say that in her answers to me previously, Llywydd, all I’ve had are some monosyllabic replies on the issue of regulatory impact assessments, for example, which is part of the Government’s own code of conduct. They promised to have regulatory impact assessments as part of consultations such as this, and it isn’t there, and I think for the reason that Paul Davies alluded to.
Given that we are going to leave the EU within the next two or three years, by the time this consultation is concluded and by the time regulations are in a position to be imposed, there may be only a matter of months left anyway. Surely, in circumstances such as this, where we so have the opportunity to tailor-make regulations that suit Wales as a separate entity, as opposed to a regime that covers an entire continent, it must make sense to have a moratorium upon measures of this kind, which can have a devastating impact on business for marginal improvements in environment quality, given that there are other ways of solving the problem.