Questions Without Notice from Party Spokespeople

Part of 1. Questions to the Minister for Environment, Energy and Rural Affairs – in the Senedd at 1:43 pm on 27 March 2019.

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Photo of Lesley Griffiths Lesley Griffiths Labour 1:43, 27 March 2019

As I say, a great deal of impact assessment had been done. We had extensive consultations. I was accused of not going out to consultation. It had gone out to consultation before I came into portfolio in 2016. I wanted to work to try and find a voluntary approach. That was absolutely my priority, but I could not just sit back and see the increase in the number of major polluting incidents. Every weekend, I was getting several e-mails, as were other Members, with photographs of these incidents. So, it's very important that we continue to work with stakeholders to try and find an approach forward. I did not want to bring in the regulations as strictly as we had to, but unfortunately, because of the significant increase in the number of incidents, I've had to do that.