8. When is the Counsel General expecting to receive key information from the UK Government which will allow the Welsh Government to complete its plans for Brexit? OAQ54206

Well, I don't know. It depends on the new Prime Minister. I have repeatedly called on the United Kingdom Government to share information on preparations for all possible Brexit outcomes. The flow of information has improved, particularly on 'no deal' Brexit preparation, but it's still imperfect.

You don’t know, we don’t know, nobody knows. We have no idea, do we, what’s going to happen after the end of October? Is that the message that you’ve conveyed to your agricultural Minister, because she has launched a consultation, of course, on transforming support for the agricultural sector in Wales, and the consultation finishes the day before Brexit? And after that day, of course, we could be facing difficulties in accessing international markets, we could be facing difficulties in terms of tariffs. We have no idea how much money we’ll receive. So, whilst you’ve told me, to all intents and purposes, that you have no idea what the arrangements are, have you passed that message on to Lesley Griffiths?

Well, that is not what I said. I said that I didn’t know when the information would be forthcoming from the United Kingdom Government. As regards preparation, it’s important, isn't it, that we make all possible preparation to ensure that we are in the best position possible when the times comes to leave, if the time comes to leave? It is definitely certain that we haven’t got the full picture at the moment, or the full information to hand, in a number of areas. That’s not something that we welcome, of course. But the Member would also criticise us if we didn’t make any preparations to prepare for this scenario, and he has criticised us in other contexts, saying that we are lagging behind, in his words, in presenting environmental legislation, for example.

So, as a Government, we have to take purposeful steps to ensure that we have a proper framework to be able to deal with whatever outcomes of Brexit. We have been discussing earlier today this question of regional structural funds and so on. There's a great deal of work happening in that field too—we're not certain what the budget will be for that. We have to prepare systems as regards how we can better secure financial sources in the future. And it's obvious—and I know that the Member will know this—that the challenge for the agriculture sector is a huge one, and it’s important that we collaborate and co-operate with them, as the Minister is doing, in order to describe the kind of situation we will face post Brexit and prepare the best we can for that possibility. But I’m sure that the Minister will be very keen to hear the standpoint of the broader sector during the consultation.

Thank you, Counsel General.