Diolch, Llyr. I have to take issue with you on a couple of points. You say I've been stung into changing direction or changing tone. If we have a consultation, any consultation I've ever run as a Minister in whatever portfolio—it must be meaningful. If I didn't listen, you would complain. If I do listen, you say I have been stung into it. You can't have it both ways. [Interruption.] Well, 'a change of tone' I think was the phrase that you used, and I absolutely commit to this consultation being meaningful too. It's 16 weeks: again, a long consultation over the summer.

You also complained, I think, about the time frame and the fact that it finishes on 30 October. For those Members who were in the Chamber when you thought that I was going to postpone this consultation by two weeks, they will have heard your outrage then. So, again, you can't have it both ways. We cannot sit back and wait for Brexit to happen around us. Whatever form it takes—if, indeed, as you say, we do leave—we have to be prepared. So, this is the reason why—. I did commit to going out to consultation at this time probably several months ago, and I believe that it’s the right time to do that.

Around some of your specific points, again, another issue that I really don't grasp with you is around the basic payment scheme. We accept that it has not protected farmers in the way that—. You only have to look at volatility, for instance, and the weather last year, when we had a drought. Certainly, the basic payment scheme would not help us with the climate emergency, and I know how committed you are to working towards reversing the damage that's been done to our climate. So, I'm quite surprised that you take that tone around the basic payment scheme.

What this scheme will provide is a stable income—a multi-year stable income. You asked me whether we would start looking at impact assessments before 30 October. I think that we need to take it slowly, so probably not. However, what I will start to do before 30 October is look at the co-design and what form that co-design will take. Last year, you may remember—and you may have attended one yourself—officials worked very closely with farmers, but it was more of a question and answer session. It won't be like that following this consultation. It's going to be much more about workshops and perhaps officials going out to farms and working with farmers. Farmers have to work with these schemes and we have to make sure that they are at the fore when we co-deign. So, co-design probably is a different word, as you say, in this consultation, but I think it's very important that we do that.

Capacity is a concern; I'm not pretending that it isn't. However, I am assured that we will be able to do this. It will take time, but I think we do have a little—. One thing that the Brexit uncertainty has done is given us a little bit more time, and I'm determined to take it slowly. Not every farmer will want to be part of this scheme, just like not every farmer is part of the basic payment scheme now. I would like every farmer to be visited anyway, but I'm not sure that farmers will want that. But it's so refreshing to go out to farms and see the amount of environmental outcomes that they're already producing and not being rewarded for. I was on a farm yesterday, where the farmer told me very proudly that the field that I was standing in—he'd had it assessed, and there were between 90 and 100 tonnes of carbon stored per hectare on his farm. He's not being rewarded for that at the moment, so I think it's really important that we do reward that.

I certainly can't commit to Welsh Government filling any gap of funding. What I will commit to is to continue to press the UK Government to ensure we do not lose a penny, as we were promised, if we left the European Union. I'm very happy to look at that percentage of responses, because I think this would be a very interesting consultation to have a look at that.