Questions now from party spokespeople. Conservative spokesperson, Samuel Kurtz.

Diolch, Llywydd. Minister, I'll start with fisheries, if I may, as invites have now been sent to stakeholders to join the ministerial advisory group for Welsh fisheries, a new group that both myself and stakeholders hope will lead to better engagement between the Welsh Government and the sector here in Wales. Given that this is a new group looking to grow the industry, can you provide further information on the structures you will use to co-design a much-needed approach to co-management of our fisheries against a backdrop of huge landings decline and pressures being experienced across the sector? And, given your assurance to the Economy, Trade and Rural Affairs Committee that you were to hold the first meeting in mid July, is this still the case?

I thought you'd already seen the invitation. Yes, it is the case. It's 14 July that I will be holding the first meeting, which I'm sure you will welcome. As you said, I did give assurance to the committee. It will be interesting to see. I think it was really imperative that we had a new structure in place. We'd had the Wales Marine Fisheries Advisory Group for quite a long time, but we are in a new world now—we've left the European Union—and we have to make sure that our fishers have many more opportunities than they had previously. I have had discussions with the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Secretary of State to ensure that Welsh fishers absolutely get their fair share of quotas. We've always co-designed and co-managed fisheries, both management and the way that we've looked at schemes that we've brought forward, particularly with COVID et cetera. So, I don't think the structure will change. What I think is really important is that the advice I'm given, as Minister, and my officials, covers the whole range of fisheries and marine.

Thank you. And, Minister, I also want to raise your attention with regard to the several families fleeing the war in Ukraine who are seeking refuge here in Wales. As you will be aware, those family pets that wish to join their owners in Wales, must rightly fulfil certain criteria to do so: they must be vaccinated against rabies, be microchipped, undertake tapeworm treatment, and possess a full, issued pet passport. Your department has confirmed that they're doing everything possible to simplify this process and ensure that these pets are able to return to their owners as quickly as possible. However, I've had correspondence from a constituent who says that, despite the advice coming from the Animal and Plant Health Agency claiming that they are happy to release their cat, it is the Welsh Government who are refusing a Ukrainian refugee family the permit to allow them to home quarantine it, despite claiming that Welsh Government review each application on a case-by-case basis.

Now, there are instances where I do believe that this should be a viable option, therefore can I call on you to reconsider this decision and ensure that these pets, companion animals, important members of the family, are reunited with their owners as quickly and safely as it's reasonable to do so?

Absolutely. I obviously recognise it's a very difficult and distressing situation that has led Ukrainian people to our country and the decision to not allow home quarantining was not taken lightly. I've done it to protect both public health and the health of our animals here in Wales. You obviously raise one individual case with me; I'm not aware of those details. However, I will say, APHA are responsible for ensuring all that paperwork is correct. So, if that paperwork is correct, I cannot see why we would turn that down. I'll be very happy—. If you want to write to me, I am aware that you have written to me already about a constituent, I think in relation to Ukrainian pets—I don't know if it's the same one, but if you would like to write to me, I will certainly look into it as a matter of urgency.

I'm grateful for that, Minister, and I will follow that up in writing with yourself.

Finally, I wish to draw your attention to the recent 'Celebrating Rural Wales' event, held at the Royal Welsh showground earlier this month, an event that your Government's press release stated provided an opportunity

'to learn lessons from the many successes of the RDP'— an RDP previously criticised by the Wales Audit Office. Now, this event came with a financial cost of over £85,000, which was confirmed as funded via the rural development programme technical assistance budget. In a press release, you stated that 200-odd people attended this event, placing an expenditure roughly at £425 per head. Now, given that public money was used to fund this event, I would expect this event to be held for the benefit of Rural Payment Wales applicants. However, having a customer reference number was not a prerequisite for being able to attend. If we are unable to measure the number of attendees who were in receipt of RDP money, i.e. those who can actually teach us the lessons of RDP funding, then what metric has been used to gauge the success of this conference? And in the interest of transparency, how are you demonstrating that this event represented value for money for Welsh taxpayers?

Thank you. Well, I think I should correct you when you say the Wales Audit Office criticised the rural development programme—there were literally hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of schemes, and the benefits to our rural communities I think are very apparent in many, many cases.

I think the event that was held, the conference, and the TasteWales event that was held next door to the conference, have been very successful. What I wanted to do was talk to people. I don't know if you attended yourself, but I wanted to talk to people who had been in receipt of rural development funding—what benefit it had brought to them. Some of the schemes, and some of the programmes—the people I spoke to had been doing them for about 10 years, so there was a wealth of data and evidence, and obviously anecdotal discussions as well, I appreciate, to help us as we bring forward the successor programme. What I have asked officials to do is draw that all together in a document, and if I'm able to, I will certainly publish it. 

Questions now from the Plaid Cymru spokesperson, Mabon ap Gwynfor. 

Thank you very much, Llywydd. I want to raise an issue that I've raised in the past, if I may. The huge increase in the prices of fodder, fuel and fertiliser is hitting our farmers hard at the moment. There's a shortage of red diesel, which has increased 50 per cent in a year, and the cost of fertiliser has more than trebled in 12 months. There's a shortage of maize, for example, to feed animals. And the agricultural development board has suggested that the cost of intensive fodder will increase by 40 per cent, and farmers are already looking at adjusting their sowing plans. 

All the signs are there for us to see real problems in producing and supplying foods. As my colleague Llyr Gruffydd mentioned yesterday, in March the Irish Government announced a crop growth scheme worth €12 million, among a number of other steps. We need a plan here in order to avoid a food crisis, along with an animal welfare crisis. The recent pig farm crisis should be a warning of that. The answers provided yesterday show that there is no plan in place to secure the future of fodder. So, does the Government have a plan to tackle the animal feed crisis facing farmers this winter? After all, it's better to prepare now than to panic later. 

Well, I don't think there's any panic, and certainly, in the discussions I've had with stakeholders, with my ministerial counterparts, with the farming unions, and certainly the discussions that officials have had, I don't think 'panic' is the correct word to use at all. A lot of these levers do sit with the UK Government, such as fuel, for instance, so those discussions are ongoing. I met yesterday on another topic with the Minister of State in the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, and we are going to continue discussions around the fuel, food and fertiliser issues. At the Royal Welsh Show, we'll be having an inter-ministerial group meeting, where we will continue to have them.

My officials regularly attend the market monitoring group that the UK Government have pulled together with other devolved administrations so that we can monitor prices across all agricultural sectors, and, certainly, the schemes that we brought forward in February this year. And some schemes are open now; some more schemes will be opening around the £237 million I referred to in an earlier answer. Some of that funding—farmers are already saying it is helping them with their plans, particularly around nutrient management and spreading fertiliser. I mentioned in an earlier answer to Sam Rowlands that farmers that are in the Glastir scheme, for instance, can come forward with a derogation request. My understanding is, to date, nobody has yet done that, but these are all avenues that are open to them. 

Thank you very much for that response. If I could move on to my next point, one thing that's wonderful about this job is that one learns something new every day, and I've learnt very recently that y clafr is the term for sheep scab. So, I'm going to ask a question on sheep scab.

As we know, sheep scab is one of the most infectious sheep diseases in Wales, and it was noted as a priority by the animal health and welfare group. It costs around £8 million a year to the sheep industry in the UK, which includes 14,000 payments here in Wales, with 9 per cent of sheep farmers experiencing one case of sheep scab per year. Now, the Welsh Government's framework, the action plan for 2022-24, sets out that the framework group will work with Government and will engage with sheep farmers and their vets in order to develop an agreed approach to control this disease. It also notes that the approach should focus on preventing the disease from spreading to flocks by simple biosecurity measures that are effective and can be used by all sheep farmers. 

In the last Senedd, the Minister herself said that eradicating sheep scab was a priority for the Government, and a pledge was made that £5 million would be available to help to eradicate sheep scab on farms in Wales. Will the Minister therefore provide us with an update on the progress made to eradicate sheep scab in Wales, and more specifically, what assessment have you made of the impact of the £5 million programme for sheep scab in Wales? 

I haven't got the figures in front of me of what the decrease we have seen in sheep scab is. I know that there was one, and I will certainly write to the Member with that. What I think is really important, if we are going to eradicate sheep scab, is that we work very much in partnership with the agricultural sector. I remember visiting a farm—I was going to say last year, but it probably wasn't because it was pre-COVID, so it was probably about three years ago—and it was a farm in mid Wales that had really managed to eradicate sheep scab from their farm. I think it's really important that that best practice is shared between our farmers, but I appreciate it is absolutely a joint effort between us.

I did give funding. I don't think it was quite £5 million, the funding I was able to give. I certainly wasn't able to give as much as I had intended to, and that was definitely due to the COVID pandemic and the way we had to reallocate some funding. But, again, I will put the details in a letter to the Member.