Licensing for Performing Animals

Part of 1. Questions to the Minister for Environment, Energy and Rural Affairs – in the Senedd at 2:05 pm on 20 February 2019.

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Photo of Helen Mary Jones Helen Mary Jones Plaid Cymru 2:05, 20 February 2019

Thank you for your answer, Minister, and thank you for your letter that you sent to me recently on an issue raised by my constituent who at the moment faces needing to pay not only for her own Welsh licence, which she's perfectly happy to do, but also an additional £800 if she's going to be able to take her business into England, which she does on a regular basis. Now, she—and many other people who work in this field—is a sole trader, with very low turnover, and, if she has to meet this additional £800 on an ongoing basis, her business will cease to be viable.

I'm pleased to hear you say that you are having discussions with Michael Gove about this issue, because it's a small issue in the great big post-Brexit picture, but to my constituent, and to others who work in that field, it's a very serious one. What assurances can you give us? It is too late now to resolve this by the 1 April deadline, I imagine, for this year, but what assurances can you give my constituent that, by next year, we will have some sort of cross-border arrangements in place, and that she will not have to pay twice to licence her business?