Minister, thank you for your statement this afternoon. There's one certainty in life in this place since I joined in 2007: that there will be various TB statements as we progress through the whole term. Indeed, the Presiding Officer led the charge for four years in her time as Cabinet Secretary in, I think, the third Assembly. I don't make those comments lightly, because this is a devastating condition in the livestock industry and to the rural economy as well. It does play, as you've highlighted in your statement this afternoon, a big economic factor in the livestock industry, but it has a huge emotional and psychological impact on farming families and, indeed, the livestock sector that are affected by this terrible disease.

One thing, regrettably, that has come over, time and time again in the 12 years that I've been an Assembly Member, is that we do not seem to have got a handle on this. The numbers that you're reporting today show a 12 per cent increase in the number of cattle killed, regrettably, due to bovine TB. A 12 per cent increase—that is a significant number by any stretch of the imagination after many goes at trying to get on top of this terrible condition. I do think that's far more reflective than maybe the number of holdings that you identified, which you seemed to take some comfort from—that there are a fewer number of holdings reporting bovine TB—but the fact of the matter is the livestock industry is contracting and there is less livestock being kept. The raw data shows that there's an increased number of cattle as a whole being taken and that clearly shows that, regrettably, the policy does not seem to be working here in Wales.

It does need a twin-tracked approach, which you've heard from these benches time and time again, to make sure that we have a healthy wildlife reservoir and, indeed, a healthy farmed livestock industry. I'd be grateful if you could highlight how many badgers have been removed that, once they've been proved infected with TB, as you touched on that in your statement—. So, we've got the cattle numbers, can you tell us how many badgers, once identified as having that infection, have been removed over the last 12 months, the reporting period you have given us?

Also, in many of the statements that have come before the Plenary, we seem to return to the compensation aspect that obviously does need to deliver value for money for the taxpayer but also a fair compensation to the livestock producer, who very often can see a whole lifetime, if not several generations, be taken away from that farm because of a bovine TB breakdown. I'd be grateful to understand what your thoughts are on this particular aspect of your statement. The finance Minister, when she was Minister, did try and bring forward proposals to change the compensation proposals and there were modest changes then. The previous First Minister, when he was environment Minister, tried to bring forward a cap on payments, some 10 or, I think, 12 years ago. My late and much missed colleague Brynle Williams was the agricultural spokesman at the time and I believe it was his vote that made that stop in its tracks. So, I do regret that you're trying to link this to Brexit. We do go back over 10, 12, 15 years and various Ministers have—[Interruption.] I hear from a sedentary position that the Minister didn't say that. The statement does say that, because of the loss of European money due to Brexit—it does actually say that, it does. I do regret trying to link this to the Brexit argument. There have been successive attacks on the compensation model by several Ministers over a longer period. If it is your intention to bring forward a consultation, can you please tell us what that consultation will be about, when it will be coming and what you have in mind to put into that consultation?

Also, I'd be grateful to understand what measures you would consider the agricultural industry needing to do over and above what's being done at the moment. I come—actually, I should have declared this at the start of the proceedings, Presiding Officer, if you'll allow me: I do declare an interest, as a livestock producer who does have cattle on his farm. What measures do you have in mind over and above the biosecurity measures that are in place at the moment—because as an industry, pre-movement and post-movement testing has come in, yearly testing has come in, where many people might have been in four-yearly parishes now are in yearly tests? And yet the agriculture industry has taken these measures on board and yet they're not seeing a more holistic approach of dealing with the wildlife reservoir that is out there and is part of the issue that is part of the contamination problem that is affecting the livestock sector. So, can you enlighten us on the points that I've put to you, Minister? I, along with most Members, if not all Members, want to see progress in this area, but unless we move forward on all fronts, then we really will be talking about this in another 12 years' time and we won't be in that position of being within touching distance of the Minister's own ambition of seeing the eradication of this terrible disease in the livestock sector.