Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. I’d like to thank Plaid Cymru for bringing this topic forward for debate today and Members for their respective contributions. I’m sure that Members will understand that I am limited in what I can say about particular projects or proposals, given my statutory role under town and country planning and the marine licence regimes.

Last month in this Chamber, I indicated my energy priorities in my energy statement, and I think I certainly made clear that I want to move away from ‘old energy’, as Llyr Gruffydd referred to. I’m now ensuring that our priorities are shared with the UK Government, Ofgem, the National Grid and others in making our grid infrastructure fit for purpose. The consenting of new high voltage grid infrastructure is the responsibility of the UK Secretary of State, but of course the Welsh Government is a statutory party to the consenting process, and we take a close interest in the management and development of the infrastructure, given its wider impact on our communities and on our wider economy.

As a country, we need a robust, fit-for-purpose grid that enables our low carbon energy objectives to be delivered. However, it does need to be delivered in a way that is not to the detriment of the surrounding environment. In particular, we fully recognise the importance of our national parks and our areas of outstanding natural beauty. They are of equal status in terms of landscape and scenic beauty. Both must be afforded the highest status of protection from inappropriate developments, and our national planning policy reiterates objectives to conserve and enhance the natural beauty of these areas. Reflecting this, our national policy for large-scale renewable wind energy projects, as set out in TAN 8, seeks to limit new large-scale onshore windfarms to the seven strategic search areas, deliberately avoiding national parks and areas of outstanding natural beauty. We expect National Grid to take a similar approach when identifying routes for new overhead power lines to avoid these areas, and to appropriately mitigate the impact of new grid connections on these areas if they are proposed in the vicinity.

Our preferred position on new grid infrastructure more generally is one of undergrounding; that’s absolutely the position we start from. Without prejudice to this position, we are continuing our engagement with the National Grid to mitigate the visual impact of any potential new transmission lines, and ensure the most appropriate technology is used for the environment and communities in which it’s to be deployed. We recognise a balanced view must be taken against costs, which could render otherwise good projects financially unviable. Sian Gwenllian, I think, mentioned—and I do apologise if I personally translated it wrong—the cost of underground on the north Wales project was only 2 per cent more, but my understanding is it’s significantly more than that. But, of course, many factors have to be considered when you look at the cost of undergrounding. It depends on the geology of where it is, the amount of power it has to carry, the length of the cables, and the method of installation.

The First Minister recently met with National Grid’s chief executive, and re-emphasised the need for a balanced and sensitive approach to major grid development. In relation to the north Wales connection project across Anglesey, as part of the development consent order process, National Grid’s pre-application consultation closed on 16 December 2016. Welsh Government provided a formal response to National Grid, in which we set out our preferred approach for undergrounding, and we welcomed National Grid’s commitment in the pre-application consultation documents to keep the option of utilising the third crossing under review as proposals progress. In relation to mid Wales, National Grid’s mid Wales project is now under review due to the UK Government’s decisions relating to onshore wind projects, to which the grid was due to connect.

I accept the development of the National Grid has not always sufficiently recognised the importance of our landscapes, and in recognition of this, Ofgem, as part of a price control, introduced a new policy for the transmission owner to reduce the visual impact of pre-existing infrastructure in national parks and AONBs. The price controls and incentives include an allowance of £500 million to mitigate the visual impact of existing electricity infrastructure, and we welcome the inclusion of the section of line near Porthmadog as part of this project. We will continue our discussions with Ofgem for the potential future funding of projects in Wales in relation to the visual impact provisions, as we believe there is potential to reduce the impact of other existing transmission lines in Wales.

So, to conclude, Deputy Presiding Officer, the Government supports the principles of the motion proposed, where feasible. We will continue our discussions with both National Grid and Ofgem to ensure the most appropriate technology is deployed, and we will continue impress the importance of reducing the impact of existing transmission in our most cherished landscapes.