3. Statement by the First Minister: Programme for Government — Update.

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 3:24 pm on 7 December 2021.

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Photo of Mark Drakeford Mark Drakeford Labour 3:24, 7 December 2021

I’m afraid, Llywydd, there’s a fundamental misunderstanding from the Member about what we have agreed. It is not that there is no change to the policy—it is that there is no change to the regulations that were passed on the floor of this Senedd towards the end of the last term. Those regulations remain on the statute book and we will not be revoking them. But, of course we will listen carefully to the work of the committee; the agreement commits us to working closely with the farming community about the way in which those regulations are used, in order to do what I think every Member in this Chamber wants to see done. Pollution in the farming industry goes on year after year; the numbers don't come down. The reputational damage to the industry is significant and it accumulates year by year, as we fail to get a grip on where the difficulties take place. The agreement commits us to deploying the regulations in a way that focuses on those greatest areas of difficulty. That's very consistent with the way I would want to see the regulations used. If there is advice that we get from the committee about how we can use the regulations to bear down on agricultural pollution, to defend the reputation of the industry, to make sure that it can go on, as so many farmers do, working hard to gain a reputation for the quality of the products that they are involved in, then we will have a very good outcome.