Natural Resources Wales

Part of 3. Topical Questions – in the Senedd at 2:45 pm on 28 November 2018.

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Photo of Andrew RT Davies Andrew RT Davies Conservative 2:45, 28 November 2018

Thank you, Cabinet Secretary, for that answer. We on this side of the Chamber have obviously lost confidence in Natural Resources Wales after a sequence of scandals, disasters and reports that have indicated even staff themselves within the organisation have very little confidence in the senior management. That is something that is highly regrettable given the very important role that Natural Resources Wales fulfils. It was set up some years ago now and should be performing far better.

The Public Accounts Committee report says that much of the actions it looked at defy logic and actually go further than incompetence when you're talking about the tens of millions of pounds that these contracts were involved in in the timber industry. Grant Thornton are undertaking a piece of work at the moment on behalf of Natural Resources Wales. It gets to a point where you really have to start calling time on these things and actually rebooting an organisation so that it can actually focus on what its priorities should be. Do you not think now is that time, even though you've indicated your support for NRW? In its five years, we have stood here time and time again with topical questions and urgent questions, and, from the sector itself, the confidence is just not there to see this organisation through to actually what it was originally intended to do—to be that guardian of the environment. Now is the time to reform it and actually take away the environmental element and put it on its own two feet with the regulation element in a separate body, and to get on with the job of having an environment here in Wales that is a beacon of what we want the rest of the world to follow.