Direct Payments for Farmers

Part of 3. Topical Questions – in the Senedd at 2:53 pm on 24 October 2018.

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Photo of Lesley Griffiths Lesley Griffiths Labour 2:53, 24 October 2018

If I can just pick up on the two points I think Neil Hamilton was making, I think that you're right about the 80 per cent of farms and that being their income, and I think that tells you a story, and that's exactly what I'm saying: the common agricultural policy doesn't, I think, encourage or protect farmers from a lot of, particularly, the volatility that we've seen. What we want to do is make them more resilient. I don't think CAP has actually done that, if we have farms that are 80 per cent reliant on those schemes.

In relation to taking things step by step, you are absolutely right, and I've made it very clear that no decisions have been taken and neither will they be until we have all the consultation responses in. I've made it very clear there will be further consultation next spring. There will be no changes to payments at all. No schemes will be designed without a proper impact assessment. No old schemes will be removed before the new schemes are ready. So, I've committed to basic payment schemes for 2018-19, and then we'll be looking at this from 2020. I've even said—and I think I said it in the article to which Llyr has referred—that if we think it needs to be another year of transition or another two years of transition, then we will look at that. I'm very flexible around that. We'll see what comes in from the consultation.