Part of 1. 1. Questions to the Cabinet Secretary for Environment and Rural Affairs – in the Senedd at 1:37 pm on 20 September 2017.
Diolch, Llywydd. The consultation period for the document ‘Taking Forward Wales’ Sustainable Management of Natural Resources’ is supposed to end on the thirtieth of this month. I know that the Cabinet Secretary has had representations from many people to say that this is a vast exercise given the breadth of the consultation that is going on and the number of issues that are often very disparate. She has been very good, I think, as Cabinet Secretary, in her period of office, in consulting and being open to all views that have an interest in all fields under her control. But I’m wondering, in view of the pressure that there has been upon organisations like the National Farmers Union, the Farmers Union of Wales and others to respond to all sorts of other consultations, and everything else which is going on with Brexit and so on, whether she feels that the time period that has been given in this instance is sufficient to get a full breadth of responses to inform whatever decisions that might otherwise be made. Is it possible to consider perhaps extending this consultation period for a little longer?