I hope the Minister recovers her voice shortly. Thank you, Minister, for your statement, or Cabinet Secretary, it's very much appreciated. Animal welfare is one of the issues that is always one of the big issues that are in most Members' postbags. Periodically, there are campaigns, but I never find a time in the year where some issue on animal welfare isn't capturing the public's imagination. And it is beneficial that this institution does have a vast array of responsibilities and powers available to itself to bring either forward legislation or regulation in this particular field, compared to where we were 20 years ago.

If I could touch on a couple of points out of the statement, because I appreciate it's only a 30-minute statement, it is, so I don't want to take other Members' times, but if I could touch on the Lucy's law proposal, I know that the Cabinet Secretary met campaigners around Lucy's law last week, and, sadly, I didn't have the opportunity because I was unwell at the time, but I know I'm tied up on a future date to meet with them. Could the Cabinet Secretary confirm what type of consultation she will be bringing forward in the new year? Third-party selling of puppies and kittens is an issue that we have talked about much in this Chamber and it is a rather unfortunate tag that, in particular, west Wales has been home to much of the puppy farming industry, and I'm sure we want to lose that tag as soon as possible and get back to responsibilities in this area. So, the sooner we can legislate in this field, I know that many members of the public and, indeed, Members on this side of the Chamber would be very grateful.

The responsibilities around education of the public are really important. The Cabinet Secretary touches on the work that Julie Morgan, the Member for Cardiff North, has done around the postal workers union, as well, and it is a huge responsibility when members of the public take on owning an animal of whatever type. I, too, have been with the RSPCA on a drive-by and I was overwhelmed, in some respects, by this one incident that we looked at, where there were four dogs in this one particular house, and the owner didn't have an idea at all about the responsibilities on them to neuter the dogs and provide good food for the dogs and a good home, and, in the end, the RSPCA ended up taking those dogs out of that environment. But I always remember the inspector saying, 'I bet you I'll come back in a month's time and there'll be a dog back in that house, and the process will be begun all over again.' It is a huge responsibility to be a pet owner, and, therefore, the job and role of educating people about those responsibilities is a huge performance that Government can undertake with the levers it has available to itself.

I notice, at the start of the statement, the Cabinet Secretary talked about the money that had been made available back in the summer to the charities—the £500,000. It has been a very difficult summer; the feeding and welfare of livestock has been a big issue on farms. I'm just a little surprised that that money hasn't already hit the charities, because, as the Minister identified, this money was designated for families under particular stress at that time. We are now in November. I think the statement indicates that that money is going to be made available at the back end of this year. Could the Minister clarify why it has not been made available to the charities so it can be dispersed amongst the agricultural community, to the needy cases that require that money coming forward?

And labelling—you also touched on labelling. The informed choice of the consumer is a really important area. Only recently, there was some social media activity around the purchase of chicken within one of our major supermarkets, and on the front of the packaging it highlighted that it was British chicken, when you turned it over, 'Produce of Thailand'. That just clearly is unacceptable. I believe, in the environment and sustainability committee, we have taken evidence recently that indicates we do have powers in this particular area around labelling, and so I would be interested to understand: has the Cabinet Secretary given any consideration to exercising those powers so that the consumer can be informed on welfare when they are making the purchases that they require?

And my one final other point, if I may, Deputy Presiding Officer, is capacity within local authorities and enforcement agencies. It is all well and good us passing legislation, passing regulation here and talking very grandly in this wonderful Chamber of ours, but the reality is you need the enforcement agencies to be resourced in the communities, whether they be local authorities or the police themselves, to actually use that legislation and those regulations to drive up standards of welfare. We know full well that, very often, local authorities, in particular when it comes to trading standards, have not got the officers to undertake many of the basic functions that are placed on them. So, what assessment has the department made of local authorities and third-party agencies' abilities to actually implement the legislation and regulation we have now around animal welfare, let alone new regulation and legislation that will be brought forward?