6. Will the First Minister make a statement on Welsh Government Investment in the food processing industry? OAQ54934

Thank you,  Llyr Gruffydd. Over successive Assembly terms, Welsh Government has provided comprehensive investment in food processing as part of the food and drink sector. We have invested £94 million directly into programmes, which have included capital investment, technical support and developing the sector's profile and routes to market.

We're all highly aware of the impact that losing the Tomlinson's plant has had, not only on the 330 workers working there but also on dozens of farmers, who have faced huge losses in terms of providing milk without having been paid for it. And we understand now from PricewaterhouseCoopers that only 3p in the £1 will be provided to those milk providers in payments—indeed, if there is anything left to deliver even that. We see time and time again that the farmers are at the bottom of the list when it comes to such situations. We saw something similar when Dairy Farmers of Britain was put in the hands of the administrators. The administrators themselves have the first rights to payments, then the banks, then the staff, and it's the farmers who are bottom of the list.

Now, there has been a suggestion, of course, that a special fund should be created where milk processors pay into it—some sort of insurance scheme, if you like—that could be drawn on in a situation where you do need to compensate the producers. The Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board does administers such a fund from the point of view of grain crops, so can I ask if that's something that the Government has looked at or is willing to consider? And more generally, what steps are you taking to safeguard producers from being open to situations such as this in the future?

Thank you to Llyr Gruffydd. Of course, we are aware of the impact that Tomlinson's Dairies has had on the sector in north Wales. I'm pleased to say that what we've heard is that almost all of the people working in Tomlinson's who did want to find new jobs have succeeded in doing so. I do know that the Minister responsible for this sector had been clear with officials that they should give priority to farmers when we were making farm payments—that we should clear that we should provide priority for them in that system. And I do believe that almost all of the people who had provided milk to Tomlinson's have found other processors to take their milk.

The Minister will have heard what the Member said about that fund, and the insurance aspect of it that you mentioned, and I'm sure that she would be willing to discuss the possibilities around that with officials.

And finally, question 7—Dawn Bowden.