8. Will the Minister provide an update on the Welsh Government's TB eradication programme? OAQ55003

Thank you. We refreshed the TB eradication programme in Wales in October 2017, and we are now seeing some long-term downward trends in key TB indicators, such as incidence and prevalence. I committed to providing a statement on the programme on an annual basis, and I will next do so in April.

I thank the Minister for that reply. In the 12 months to October 2019, 12,742 cattle were slaughtered. That's the highest figure on record; it compares with only 917 back in 1996. I heard the First Minister, a few days ago, claiming that this increase in slaughter was actually a sign that the Government's policy was being successful. I don't, myself, see the highlighting of past failures as an indication of success, although that's an important development. I do acknowledge that some progress has been made, but I hope the Minister will agree that not enough has been done and a lot remains to be done.

The Government's policy's been focused almost entirely upon farm practices and restrictions placed on farmers and cattle movements, and it has ignored one other important element in the jigsaw, which is the prevalence of TB in wildlife as a vector of infection. Until the Government does recognise that this is one part of the solution to the problem, we will never achieve what we all want to achieve, which is the total eradication of TB in Wales. The Minister often says that she is going to base her policy on evidence, and that's a very good thing, but given that she and her colleagues in previous decisions have done the opposite—the shooting ban introduced by Natural Resources Wales was done in the face of their own evidence; the imposition of windfarms like Hendy has been done against the recommendation of the Minister's own appointed inspector; the smoking ban that we were debating this week—

Like Joyce Watson, you need to get to your question also, Neil Hamilton.

—was introduced in spite of the results of the Government's own consultation. So, my question to the Minister is: how can rural Wales have any faith in this Government that it will actually base its policy on evidence when all the evidence that we have is that it does the opposite?

Well, I absolutely do base any policy I bring forward on science and evidence, and I think Neil Hamilton's cherry-picking a bit, because if you look at the TB dashboard, if you look at the short term, for instance in the 12 months to October 2019, there were 666 new herd incidents reported in Wales—too many, I agree, and I absolutely want to stress that—but it was a 12 per cent decrease on the previous 12 months, so we are seeing improvement. In the longer term, we've seen a 37 per cent decrease in new incidents from 2019 to 2018. We have seen a decrease in animals slaughtered by 4 per cent in 2009 to 2018.

I think the point the First Minister was making was around more sophisticated testing enabling us to find the TB earlier than it was before. We don't ignore any element of the TB picture, and I can assure the Member that, in our bespoke action plans, for instance, absolutely every element is looked at.

Finally, Russell George.

Diolch, Llywydd. Minister, the number of approved finishing units in Wales is significantly lower pro rata than in England, I'm told. And this is, of course, limiting the opportunities for farmers down with TB to sell their calves to prevent overstocking on their holdings. I wonder, Minister, what you intend to do to encourage the setting up of more approved finishing units in Wales, and also would you commit your officials to look at simplifying the regulations around them?

I'm certainly happy to look at simplifying anything. I hate bureaucracy and if it can be simplified in any way—. I know officials are working with individual farmers where they do have a breakdown, particularly if they've got different pockets of land that could be declared TB-free or are TB-free, to do that. But, yes, I'm certainly happy to commit officials to doing that.

Thank you, Minister.