Part of 1. Questions to the Minister for Environment, Energy and Rural Affairs – in the Senedd at 1:45 pm on 3 February 2021.
I've heard it said that you promised seven times not to introduce these NVZ regulations during the pandemic. I've actually found over 10 times where you have explicitly, on the Record to this Plenary or to Senedd committees, made it clear that you would not introduce these regulations during the COVID pandemic. Now, on the very day that the Chief Medical Officer for Wales declared, in a Government briefing, that there was a long way to go until the worst of the COVID pandemic was over, you tabled these regulations. So, you broke your word, Minister. You've misled us all and you've broken your promise to the farmers of Wales, and of course, you're not the only one who has misled us. I've written this morning to the First Minister because he, yesterday, did say on the Record, and I quote:
'We have seen no diminution in the rate of agricultural pollution.'
And the statistics I've seen show that, in reality, the number of substantiated agricultural pollution incidents to water has actually decreased over the past three years—a year-on-year decrease, according to Natural Resources Wales figures, between 2018 and 2020. And conversely, might I say, pollution from the water industry has gone up ever year in that very same period, but of course, it's the farmers that are pummelled again by your Government. Now, doesn't all of this and all of these broken promises and made-up statistics highlight the confused, shambolic and discombobulated way in which you've handled this matter?