Questions Without Notice from Party Spokespeople

Part of 1. Questions to the Minister for Environment, Energy and Rural Affairs – in the Senedd at 1:44 pm on 3 February 2021.

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Photo of Lesley Griffiths Lesley Griffiths Labour 1:44, 3 February 2021

I would turn that question around and say, 'How can they not afford to do this?' I have always maintained we would provide support, both financial and practical. There will be a phased approach for these regulations, and, as I said, many of the farmers are already abiding by these regulations. For many, it won't be any different at all. You may be aware of the dairy project that Natural Resources Wales undertook around visits to dairy farms to have a look at what slurry storage was like, et cetera, and I always made it very clear that we would not give funding to farmers who weren't compliant with the current regulations, and, unfortunately, there have been 780 visits carried out as part of this dairy project and the report up until the end of last year was that at least 50 per cent are not compliant. That's with the current regulations. So, it's really important that you understand the significance of this and I hope that you do not condone the level of agricultural pollution incidents that we are seeing.