Snares

Part of 1. Questions to the First Minister – in the Senedd at 2:22 pm on 19 October 2021.

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Photo of Mark Drakeford Mark Drakeford Labour 2:22, 19 October 2021

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.