Minister, thank you for your statement. Today I started my day about half-past four this morning, loading lambs and ewes to go up to Raglan market. And when I was reading your statement, I have to say that, if I was talking to farmers in Raglan market today, I'm not sure I'd feel any more confidence in what might be coming down the tracks to take the place of what is currently the support package that is available to farmers here in Wales after extensive consultations by your department. And I appreciate there are various voices saying, 'There should be a pause because of COVID' and we can understand that, because obviously COVID has changed the complete landscape we're working in at the moment. You just need to go on to any website, now, and see that £500 million of extra money is coming to the Welsh Government because of announcements by the Chancellor today. Those are unprecedented sums of money that will be coming into the Welsh Government's coffers and it'll be for the Government to determine how it'll allocate that money accordingly.

But I do think it's a fair question, given the amount of energy that the department has put into this particular exercise, and rightly so because it is a transformation agenda—what exactly can we see, going forward, that will give confidence to farmers that the support will be coming through to sustain the rural communities that depend on this money, as the UK Government has committed, in the lifetime of this Parliament, to ring-fence that money and pass it to Welsh Government? And as I understand it, the current First Minister has indicated that that money will be passported through to farms, if it comes in that rural envelope. And so I'd be grateful for that answer from you so that people can understand the journey that you're going to undertake now in the department.

I would like to understand as well how much of a greater emphasis you're putting on the food security element in any discussions and debates that you're having internally, on the basis that we've seen what happened in the early part of the COVID crisis. Consumers, our voters, our constituents, put a huge amount of weight on local produce and understanding where that produce comes from, and I would suggest that food production is a public good. Do you identify with that, rather than just leaving it to the vagaries of the market? It is a public good that does need an element of support from Government, which I know is a point that you and I have debated over this despatch box over time.

I'd also like to understand what economic analysis has been going on in the department, especially as you're going to be bringing forward a White Paper before the Assembly goes into dissolution. Because, of course, into this mix we have to bear in mind that there will be an Assembly election. I'm sure you'll be fighting tooth and nail to retain a Labour Government here in Wales. Not unreasonably, I'll be fighting tooth and nail to make Paul Davies the First Minister and put a Conservative Government in. But I'm just stating the blindingly obvious. I'm just stating the blindingly obvious, in the next eight to nine months—[Interruption.] From this statement, there might be preparatory work by this particular Government, but there will be a new Government after May of next year, assuming, obviously, that the elections do go ahead. So, it is important to understand what economic analysis is undertaken by the department on any proposals that it is bringing forward. And will you be making that economic analysis available, so that people can understand the thinking behind some of the work that's going on? 

You touch, in your statement, about a voluntary scheme. I think the way you word it is an entitlement-based scheme to a voluntary scheme. Well, the current scheme is a voluntary scheme, because you don't have to actually subscribe to it, you don't. So, you seem to be putting a heavy distinction on this wording. I'd be grateful if you could flesh out exactly your thinking on this—why you believe that it'll be a greater voluntary effort of a farmer/landowner in Wales to sign up to your scheme than maybe it would be under the current scheme, given that you put such emphasis on it in your speech.

You also touch on a transition period from the current scheme to whatever will take its place. I've touched on the election that will happen next year. We don't have an agricultural Bill here in Wales, although there are huge powers within the UK agricultural Bill, and you, as Minister, and the Welsh Government, sought, obviously, to protect that transition. In that Bill, there is the ability to have the current schemes in place until 2024. Do you envisage a transition scheme that would take that length of time and so, therefore, you would be able to use the current model of support up until that time? Or are you looking at a far shorter transition period?

My final point, and with the indulgence of the Deputy Presiding Officer, as I remember from last week—[Laughter.]—all power to your elbow on the simplification around the common agricultural policy rules and guidance that are out there at the moment. I have to say, as a Member of some 13-years standing, I have stood here many, many times and heard Ministers, of all shapes and sizes, talk about simplification of rules and regulations. I'd be most grateful, and I can see one of your predecessors behind you there, and I can remember him standing here talking about simplification very often—so I'd be grateful to understand what your thinking is about how you can do this, because all power to your elbow, as I said. I wish you well on that. But very often, when Government sets about a simplification agenda, it ends up with a whole new raft of new regulations and rules that complicate the picture even more.

And my final point, if I may, is that your department does have several reports from the auditor general around the rural development plan. The rural development plan is a distinctively Welsh plan that was devised here in Wales by the Welsh Government. Based on those reports and the efforts of the department, it doesn't give me confidence going forward that the department is well placed to devise these new measures for Welsh agriculture and the Welsh countryside. I hope that you will address some of those issues in maybe your brief response to me, to give me and others confidence that when it comes to the RDP, we shouldn't read everything into it across for these new measures that you're bringing forward for sustainable farming.