7. Will the First Minister provide an update on the Welsh Government's waste infrastructure procurement programme? OQ58330

The Welsh Government's waste infrastructure procurement programme has been successfully completed, with the last contract awarded in 2018.

Thank you, First Minister. As you have mentioned, this programme has been quite successful in helping deliver carbon reductions through the use of anaerobic digestion facilities as an alternative for food waste treatment. I'm also aware that, although modest, the anaerobic digestion facilities create jobs, both in building and running facilities, and have the ability to supply farmers with cheaper, more sustainable fertiliser at a time when the price of non-organic, fossil fuel-based fertilisers is rapidly increasing. With this in mind, I'm wondering what capacity has been identified to expand the use of anaerobic digestion by local authorities for the purpose of processing food waste both in Wales and, potentially, along the English-Welsh border. Secondly, since anaerobic digestion facilities do contribute to the creation of new circular economies in the countryside and that there remains a persistence of high-carbon energy systems in remote rural areas, which AD could help reform, how can the waste infrastructure procurement programme be replicated or reformed to help deliver, through AD, a reduction in carbon emissions in rural areas? Thank you.

Llywydd, I thank Joel James for that further question. He is right that the programme did help to deliver a network of five anaerobic digestion plants as well as two energy-recovery facilities in north and south Wales, and although the programme itself has come to an end, that doesn't mean that we are no longer providing funding support to local authorities and their partners, particularly, for example, with the circular economy fund, so that work can continue to make sure that we're doing everything we can to recycle waste in a way that delivers the benefits that Joel James has suggested. To give one example, Llywydd, we are currently working with the Vale of Glamorgan to provide £10 million to support infrastructure in that local authority to improve recycling performance, to further decarbonise waste and recycling services. And anaerobic digestion continues to play its part in the repertoire of actions we are able to take, and it does come, as the Member says, with a set of further advantages in its production of fertiliser by-products that can then be further used to assist at a time when fertiliser prices around the globe are at an all-time high.

Question 8 [OQ58289] is withdrawn. Finally, question 9, Laura Anne Jones.