Animal welfare establishments in Wales are providing a critical and necessary service, as we can see by just how busy they are. However, their credibility has been damaged by some awful establishments. I'd like to bring some examples to light of just why we need to regulate animal welfare establishments.

Since 2016, I've been watching the actions against a local charity in my region, Capricorn Animal Rescue, which was exposed in a BBC Wales undercover programme that my colleague Huw Irranca-Davies was part of. The volunteers had been fighting for more than three years prior to this programme airing, yet it was only struck off the charity register in September of this year—eight years—and still there is no formal action from the Charity Commission against those responsible, nor a report from an inquiry that opened in 2017. The frustrations of the volunteers fighting here were solely looking at the Charity Commission as the only viable authority.

The key issue for these volunteers also was that there was no one body responsible for stepping in and it was them that faced the brunt of the mental health burden and fiscal cost of fighting something that was so obviously wrong. On their behalf, I have to publicly thank our local voluntary council, who helped these volunteers in every way they could, and provided the only element of direct support available.

Again, within my region of north Wales, in 2019 another organisation, from south Wales, Whispering Willows horse sanctuary, caused issues locally. Some simple investigations by local constituents exposed some very serious concerns with the foundation of that organisation, and in early 2021 the founder pleaded guilty to Animal Welfare Act offences and was banned for 10 years. Only last week were 34 dogs and two ferrets removed from a farm in Snowdonia connected to a local hunt. Every issue like this puts massive strain on other animal welfare organisations when they're closed, having to support taking in additional animals that were not part of their planned need.

The Welsh Government animal welfare plan goes much further. However, a start is to regulate all organisations that are responsible for animals in our society. It's concerning that anyone can start an animal welfare establishment, regardless of qualifications or experience. We must make sure that we are all doing all we can to provide adequate resources and, importantly, powers to action animal welfare establishment regulation and to properly investigate issues when they're exposed by members of the public or volunteers. Local authorities will need massive amounts of support and education on major areas that are not their expertise. The issues outside of current licensed business and the complications that come with charity legislation, and the well-known difficulties with founder's syndrome, are a mountain to face without a thorough understanding. We must listen to the experiences of those who have exposed welfare issues and create the regulations to require multiple organisations to work together to actively stop abuses. Yet there must be a requirement to have a sole body responsible for stepping in, and this must no longer be on the heads of volunteers. Diolch.