Part of 1. Questions to the Minister for Environment, Energy and Rural Affairs – in the Senedd at 2:03 pm on 16 September 2020.
No, I won't drop them. I laid the draft regulations, as you know, earlier this year, around Easter time. What I have committed to is not bringing them forward whilst we're in the middle of a COVID-19 pandemic. However, I can inform Members that, up until I think it was something like 27 August, NRW had told me of over 100 substantiated agricultural pollution incidents. So, you can see they're still occurring. I am aware there's a lot of good voluntary work going on, and I continue to receive information about it and officials are working certainly with the farming unions to listen to what they come forward with in relation to voluntary measures. I had a meeting on Monday, I think it was, with the National Farmers Union, and I did express my concern over the continuing number of substantiated cases that we have seen this year of agricultural pollution—and I mention the word 'substantiated' because, of course, during the COVID-19 pandemic, NRW officers weren't able to get out there as much as they would normally.