Part of 1. 1. Questions to the Cabinet Secretary for Environment and Rural Affairs – in the Senedd at 1:44 pm on 28 June 2017.
Thank you, Llywydd. Last time I questioned the Cabinet Secretary on agriculture a few weeks ago, we were discussing regulations applying to agriculture post Brexit. The burden of my question was that we should reassess all regulations to see if we could reduce them where there was no substantial diminution of public benefit. Part of the Cabinet Secretary’s answer seems to have caused a certain amount of consternation amongst some farmers, because she said, ‘Well, of course, this could mean an increase in regulation.’ I’m hoping that today she might be able to put that into a bit of perspective. I’ll give one illustration of how, in England at the moment, farmers are campaigning to relax hedge-cutting restrictions in August. Of course, we don’t have them in Wales. There’s a short window of opportunity between harvesting summer crops and planting winter crops, and it creates problems for farmers if they can’t do things like hedge cutting and other management issues in August. So, that’s an example of how having regulations that are more proportionate are in the interests of farmers, but don’t cause any problems for public benefit.