European Union Import Checks

Part of 2. Questions to the Minister for Rural Affairs and North Wales, and Trefnydd – in the Senedd at 3:01 pm on 29 June 2022.

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Photo of Lesley Griffiths Lesley Griffiths Labour 3:01, 29 June 2022

I don't disagree with anything you said. I think this is now becoming very, very urgent, and I made that very clear to Victoria Prentis at the meeting last night. I also made it very clear that whilst—. I think we're on the same page with DEFRA on this, really, and the Scottish Government; we do want to see a UK-wide policy. But I made it very clear that they should not take our support for granted. If we see it and we're not happy with it, we will go on our own. As you say, it is a devolved area, and I am very concerned that these checks need to be carried out, because I go back to what we were saying about Ukrainian pets in my answer to Sam Rowlands—it's really important that we safeguard the public health of both people and animals here in Wales. This is the third delay now, and we've had to stop the design of our border control posts and, okay, we've started it again now, but have we got assurance about money? No, we haven't. So, I made it very clear again to DEFRA last night that we need the Treasury to come forward. You'll be aware my colleague Vaughan Gething, the Minister for Economy, made a statement yesterday in the Siambr on border control posts; I'm working very closely with him. But there is such uncertainty around what we should be preparing for, and what those border control posts should look like. Biosecurity, for me, is one of the most important parts of my portfolio.