5. Will the First Minister make a statement on the use of snares? OQ57033

The manifesto on which the Member and I stood for election in May contained a commitment to ban the use of snares in Wales. Our intention is that it should be contained in the agriculture Bill that the Government will bring before the Senedd in our first-year legislative programme.

First of all, can I thank the First Minister for that response? Thousands of wild and domestic animals are killed or severely injured in Wales every year due to the use of snares. The RSPCA report that the use of snares is still widespread, as many as 51,000 fox snares can be active in Wales at any one time, and there's a lack of compliance with the code. Can I urge the First Minister to bring this piece of legislation forward as a matter of urgency? Because the longer we wait, the more animals will be either killed or injured.

I thank Mike Hedges for that, Llywydd, and I thank him for his consistent championing of this issue and animal welfare issues more generally. I took the opportunity to look again at the report of the committee he chaired in the last Senedd on the use of snares in Wales, published in June 2017. It asked us to collect evidence annually of compliance with the statutory code on best practice on the use of snares in Wales, and if we didn't have evidence that the code was being properly observed, that we should act in the way that we now propose to do. I've discussed this with officials preparing for today's question, Llywydd, and the advice I had was that despite an annual attempt to gather that evidence, very little evidence indeed has been forthcoming that the code is being properly observed in practice. That is the basis on which we will bring forward legislation, and I'm pleased to confirm again, in the way that the Member asked, that this will be part of the first year of the legislative programme of this Senedd term.

First Minister, your Government's proposal to ban snares would have a significant impact on farmers, gamekeepers and land managers. Control of predators by farmers and gamekeepers is imperative to protect both livestock and biodiversity. Predator management is an important conservation issue. Foxes, among other predators, are a factor in biodiversity decline, targeting ground-nesting birds. The curlew, for example, could be extinct as a breeding bird in Wales by 2033. Targeted predator snaring helps ensure that threatened populations such as the curlew are protected. The Welsh Government introduced a code of best practice on the use of snares in 2015, and it engaged the industry in its development. The code seeks both to minimise the risk to non-target species and to achieve high animal welfare standards by greatly reducing the capture of non-target species. First Minister, if your Government does ban the use of snares, what measures will the Government take to keep predator numbers under control to safeguard businesses and mitigate biodiversity loss, and to ensure that any potential plan is backed up by scientific and steadfast evidence, and not based on the number of consultation replies that you have received? Diolch.

I'm happy to help the Member, but he has help closer to hand. His leader said in Plenary, here on the floor of Senedd:

'I would like to see a ban on snares...I see no modern use for them at all.'

Or I could probably provide for him the article headed 'Welsh Tories call for ban on "cruel" snares'. [Interruption.] Yes, Welsh Tories—[Interruption.] You see, I can help him, Llywydd. I'm willing to help him, but he has help on the benches next door to him. This was an article by Russell George:

'Welsh Conservatives want a complete ban on snares and we wholeheartedly support calls from animal welfare campaigners.'

I think the Member's time would be better spent consulting with his colleagues, because they clearly have answers to his questions that they can help him with.