Thank you very much indeed, and my thanks to Llyr for chairing the evidence that we heard in this inquiry into NRW and bringing forward this report, and also our clerking team and those who gave evidence to us as well. At the same time as we face this double whammy of a climate crisis and a nature and biodiversity crisis, our report pointedly says that NRW needs a much-needed reset in funding and strategy to meet these crises. So, we believe, in bringing forward this report, that we do indeed have a much-needed opportunity now for a reset of the funding arrangements for NRW to put it on a stable footing now and for the future and to enable NRW to do its job properly, albeit being lean and mean and very, very green. 

Just short of a decade after the merger in 2013 of the Countryside Council for Wales, Environment Agency Wales and Forestry Commission Wales—itself, of course, at the time courted some controversy—our report now picks up widespread current concern among stakeholders regarding, and I quote,

'its ability to monitor and enforce environmental protection laws; respond to incidents of environmental pollution and flooding; monitor and assess the condition of terrestrial and marine sites; and support land use and marine planning.' 

Yet an effective, dynamic, purposeful and adequately resourced NRW is crucial to the success of responding to the nature and biodiversity crises that we face, as well as protecting people. 

During scrutiny of the draft budget, the Minister for Climate Change told the committee that the question of whether NRW is able to effectively exercise its massive breadth of duties and responsibilities would be addressed through a fundamental baseline review, looking at the allocation of NRW resources against its statutory functions and the programme for government commitments. That'll conclude before April 2023. As the Chair says, that's a while off, but, if the time needs to be taken, reluctantly, then do it properly and then reset it, but do it really, really well; we can't waste any more time. The Minister's written response to our report has added more detail to that, and we're grateful for it. But we also note that NRW has told us that updates to its corporate and business plan and its remit letter have been delayed due to this baseline review. So, we simply cannot delay any further beyond the timelines the Minister has described. 

Minister, can I ask you: how does NRW and its broad remit and responsibilities ensure that protecting and enhancing the natural environment and ecosystem services is advanced, alongside its commercial interests in timber and renewables and so on, and that nature isn't compromised against the balance-sheet approach?

On the workforce, NRW told the Senedd's Economy, Trade and Rural Affairs Committee—and we noted this—that enforcing the recent agricultural pollution regulations would be a massive workload requirement, needing 60 extra staff to deliver the minimum viable product, and well over 200 to deliver the full role. NRW's review of flooding in February 2020 found that it would require an additional 60 to 70 staff to ensure long-term sustainable improvements in flood management. More generally, Minister, are the concerns that we regularly pick up about staff overstretch across the piste with NRW. So, Minister, a very straightforward question: do we have enough staff and expertise in the right place and at the right time with NRW?

The state of our rivers and the cumulative attack of sewage and agricultural and developmental and industrial pollution has had plenty of Senedd airtime this week already, and it's good to hear this week of some of the work that the Minister has commissioned already, and of the grabbing by the Welsh Government of new opportunities in the regulatory regime to strengthen duties on water companies, and that the First Minister himself is going to chair a phosphate summit at the Royal Welsh Show this year, but timely intervention, as we heard from the Chair, Minister, is crucial. So, what timescales has she set herself and NRW and other bodies for reversing the decline in our rivers—and I say this as the salmon champion in this Senedd, of course—and for seeing improvements in our rivers?

Finally, Minister, next year will indeed be 10 years since NRW was created, when those three distinct organisations were brought together. Will this be the year when—after the baseline review and the reset that we see is desperately needed is done—we can celebrate an NRW that is newly renewed, revived, fit for purpose now and for the future? Diolch yn fawr.