1. What action is the Welsh Government taking to reduce industrial pollution? OAQ55106

Llywydd, the Welsh Government has provided the regulators with an extensive range of enforcement tools to reduce industrial pollution. We expect those powers to be used to prevent incidents from taking place and to take remedial action when incidents do occur.

Can I thank the First Minister for his answer in relation to that point? Last week, we had a debate here in the Chamber on air quality and a clean air Act, possibly. It focused very much on PM10s, PM2.5s and vehicle emissions, but of course industrial pollution is also added to that, particularly nuisance dust, which people might consider a harm to health but actually it also drives people's mental well-being downwards, as they come in, day after day, to see the mess outside their homes and in their properties and everywhere else. I've raised this many times in this Chamber, First Minister.

Now, we all understand the importance of industries to our local economies, but there's also a need for them to be responsible neighbours. As we have left the European Union and we are now looking at an environment Bill to come from the Welsh Government, there's an opportunity for us to actually look at regulations and improving environmental regulations. Strengthening them to ensure that the number of days that are seeing a breach to the level of safety standards is reduced; that Natural Resources Wales has more teeth so that they can actually take action when those neighbours are not responsible; and we can ensure that industries, such as the steelworks in my own constituency and others, are ensuring that they do not emit beyond the reasonable levels; and they do not have the impact upon our communities that is driving those communities downwards regarding mental health conditions.

I have so many constituents raising concerns about the pollution that, day after day after day, they're seeing. Sometimes, it's noise pollution as well. So, these are very important issues. Will you use the environment Bill to actually give us that strength to ensure that we can take action when necessary?

I thank David Rees for those questions and recognise the extent to which he always speaks up, here on the floor of the Assembly, for the importance of the steel industry in his own constituency. But as he says, for that industry to be a good neighbour to those who live alongside it.

Of course, the environment legislation that we will bring forward will be an opportunity to look at the standards we have in place and the enforcement powers we have in place. In the immediate future, we are putting significant pressure on the UK Government to make sure that, for the industrial emissions directive, which currently governs emissions and industrial pollution, they commit to that continuing beyond the EU exit transition period.

And while that is going on, there are two other developments this year that I know will be of direct interest for David Rees's constituents: there's the draft clean air plan consultation going on until 10 March, where the Minister has already said she will look to see if regulators need further powers; and specifically in the Port Talbot context, Llywydd, there's an ongoing review of the short-term action plan, independently advised by the University of the West of England, carried out in consultation with Tata, NRW and Neath Port Talbot Council. Again, I know that the Minister has very specifically committed that nuisance dust, which as David Rees says causes distress to people who live in that locality, will be encompassed in that review. 

First Minister, in the absence of a clean air Act, as you've indicated, we are to have a clean air plan, once the consultation finishes and you respond to it and then put it into effect. Central to the new regime will be prevention and control regulations that apply best available techniques, or BAT, for pollution control. Perhaps you could elaborate on what this is likely to be, because I do think we need a mixture of ensuring that our major industries themselves improve their own practices, but obviously there's an enforcement regime that ensures, if they don't do it voluntarily, they will be brought to book.

I thank David Melding for that. He's absolutely right: the polluter-pays principle is centrally important here. Industries that cause industrial pollution must take responsibility themselves for reducing that pollution. They must pay for the cost of regulation as well.

The best available techniques come under the industrial emissions directive and are the practical ways in which that directive is given force, because it requires companies that emit industrial pollution to demonstrate that they are taking advantage of the most recent techniques available to reduce environmental impact from their industrial activities. 

As I said to David Rees, there is a job of work to be done in persuading the UK Government that that regime, which has served us well and can continue to do so even more effectively in the future, is not set aside when we leave the European Union, finally, at the end of this calendar year.

I'm sure, First Minister, that you'll be aware of the recent fire at Kronospan in Chirk, an area that I represent in this Assembly. I'm told it's the seventeenth fire in around 18 years, although anecdotally local people are telling me that they happen even more often than that. Be that as it may, they're absolutely fed up with these kinds of incidents. There are big questions to be answered around this particular event: questions around why there was such a slow response in informing local people about the fire; why it took 48 hours for air pollution monitoring equipment to get to Chirk; and why the fire raged for so long. So, will you, as First Minister, set up an independent inquiry to answer some of these questions and give local residents the peace of mind that they deserve?

I thank Llyr Gruffydd for that. I was indeed aware of the fire at the Kronospan site, because I know that my colleague Ken Skates, as the local Member, had met with the company and with Unite the Union, representing the workforce at the site, to find out from them the actions that they were taking. Wrexham County Borough Council was also represented at that meeting, because it is the local authority's responsibility now to investigate whether or not the constraints that are meant to operate around that site were properly in place at the time that the fire occurred. The county borough council must report on its investigations by the end of April of this year, and I think it is only fair to allow them to carry out that responsibility and to see what that report uncovers before we decide whether any further action is required.