Thank you for the response. Well, carrying on on the theme of funding for fishing and aquaculture, the UK seafood fund has funds of £100 million under three pillars: science and innovation, infrastructure, skills and training. The Welsh fisheries funding scheme rightly highlights the need to maximise leverage of the £100 million UK seafood fund into Wales. In principle, this sounds sensible, however in practice, neither fisher people in Wales nor the fishing representative bodies are equipped to navigate or cash-flow the UK fund's processes. So, it's unlikely that the sector will benefit from it. Wales should benefit from £8 million of this UK fund, which, combined with the Welsh funds of £6.2 million, would be transformational for the Welsh seafood offer and the whole supply chain. 

The science and innovation pillar of the UK fund certainly provides an opportunity for the fishing sector, however, other pillars are limited to ports, harbours and processing facilities and training organisations, leaving little for our catching sector. It's difficult to see how the Welsh scheme would lever any funding from the UKSF pillars. The Welsh seafood industry could be seriously disadvantaged by barriers to accessing the UKSF, which could result in unspent funds reverting to the Treasury or other administrations. So, does the Minister agree with the concerns expressed by the sector and, if so, how will the Welsh Government help ensure that the Welsh fishing sector can maximise the benefits of available funding under the UKSF?