Item 5 today is a statement by Peter Fox on the introduction of a Member Bill, the Food (Wales) Bill. I call on Peter Fox.

Diolch, Dirprwy Lywydd. May I first of all remind Members of my declaration of interest as a farmer? It is an absolute pleasure to introduce the Food (Wales) Bill to the Chamber this afternoon—the first Member Bill of the sixth Senedd. Around 13 months ago, I was given the opportunity by you all to present an outline of the Bill, based on the principle that we need to get more locally produced food into our homes, our communities and our public services. But when discussing my ideas with stakeholders, it turned out that much more work was needed to ensure that the food system works for not just our producers, but our communities as well. And so, the Bill as drafted today has been expanded far beyond what I originally envisaged. I felt that it was important that we grasped this opportunity to strengthen the Welsh food system as a whole, to establish a more sustainable food system in Wales, to strengthen food security, improve Wales's socioeconomic well-being, and to enhance consumer choice.

These are the broad principles that have underpinned the provision and policy objectives of the food Bill. To achieve this, the Bill provides a framework that enables a coherent, consistent and strategic cross-governmental approach to policy and practice on all aspects of the food system. To inform this process, I have held a wide range of consultation—from policy round-tables to scope the initial approach of the Bill, I've had regular engagement with policy experts to discuss technical aspects, as well as a public consultation, which I launched at the Royal Welsh Show. That went over the summer, and we've received over 50 high-quality responses to the consultation. What this uncovered was strong support for the general principles of the Bill and its provisions. Over 75 per cent of respondents agreed that we need to see this Bill on the statute book.

Deputy Llywydd, the amount of work that has gone into producing the Bill, and the explanatory memorandum, has been immense, and I could not have done this without the expert support and friendship offered to me by the Commission Bill team, who have been drawn from across the Senedd Commission, as well as thanks to the external counsel. They have put a tremendous and immense effort in, from day one, to transform my ideas into reality, and to guide me through this process. I'm ever so thankful, and I have to praise the quality of the staff in the Commission—they have been outstanding. I also wanted to say a special thanks to my own support staff, particularly Tyler Walsh, who has been absolutely fundamental in helping me achieve this to date, and also Tom Povey, who has been invaluable throughout this process. I would also like to take the opportunity to thank every organisation, policy expert, and members of the public, from across the UK, that have helped us to shape the Bill. Your continued support is very much appreciated.

Deputy Llywydd, I would now like to turn to the Bill itself, and will broadly set out what each section does and why. We start with food goals. They provide a mechanism to ensure that the Bill achieves its key policy objective, or the primary food goal—that is, to deliver affordable, healthy and economically, environmentally and socially sustainable food for the people now and for future generations. This is supported by a range of secondary food goals that cover things like health, social and economic well-being, environment and biodiversity, and, of course, food waste. The Bill places a duty on public bodies to take reasonable steps to advance the primary food goal and the secondary food goals, such as through the national food strategy and local food plans. There is also a requirement on Welsh Ministers to consolidate existing targets, as well as to establish additional targets on how to meet the food goals. The reason for this provision is to establish a consistent direction of travel for the Welsh food system, as well as increasing accountability within it. During consultation, it was made clear that there is a lack of coherent approach to Welsh food policy, as well as within the wider food system. Sixty-three per cent of respondents to the consultation on the draft Bill believed that the Welsh Government food-related strategies are not joined up enough. And whilst there are a number of plans in place, many of these lack scrutiny and accountability mechanisms. 

Back in 2010, the Welsh Government's 'Food for Wales' strategy, which I know the Llywydd will know rather well, made welcome progress in establishing a more holistic approach to food policy. But it lacked systems of targets and data collection to measure what progress was made. After this, successive strategies, such as the 2014 action plan and the 2021 vision for the food and drink industry, have moved the focus towards economic growth and promoting exports, as opposed to using the food system to address wider social issues. So, the food goals reflect what the previous environment committee argued for in their report, 'Rethinking food in Wales'—that is for a strategy that reflects a whole-system approach. To translate the food goals into policy, the Welsh Government would be expected to produce a national food strategy, whilst some public bodies, such as councils and health boards, will be required to produce local food plans. It is expected that the local plans will reinforce the objectives of the national strategy. These will draw together existing policies and promote innovation at a national and local level. They will also ensure consistency in policy too.

Food Policy Alliance Cymru have pointed out a number of examples where food policy in Wales has been somewhat inconsistent, such as missed opportunities to connect Welsh Government's food and drink retail plan with the 'Healthy Weight: Healthy Wales' strategy, and the minimum alcohol pricing policy versus the Government's drink strategy. These plans will also boost the food and drink sector in Wales by strengthening the resilience of local supply chains. It will create new economic opportunities within communities, by ensuring that public bodies increase their procurement of locally produced food, and improve the local environment by focusing on the production of more sustainable produce. 

Dirprwy Lywydd, the final main aspect of the Bill is the creation of a Welsh food commission, made up of a board and chair. It is intended that members will be drawn from across the food system. The commission will reset the governance of the food system in Wales, and will co-create and oversee the delivery of a national food strategy, alongside Welsh Ministers and other stakeholders. It will hold delivery partners to account, to ensure that food goal targets and policy aims are met. The commission can also use its role to build policy expertise and capacity within Wales.

There has been some discussion that, actually, a commission is not needed and that instead the future generations commissioner can look at food as part of their remit. I put on record my thanks to the support of the future generations commissioner through this process. But the commissioner is already under significant time and resource pressure, meaning they would require more resource to do so, which could be better directed to a body that has the capability and expertise to take a whole-system approach to food policy. The Bill also provides Welsh Ministers with the flexibility to set up and fund the commission within the framework set out within the Bill, meaning the Government can direct how much resource it feels necessary to fund the commission. The explanatory memorandum sets out some of the existing commissioners and their budgets to give the range of potential budgetary costs. 

In summary, Dirprwy Lywydd, I have today set out some of the main features of the Bill, and the rationale behind them. This statement starts a long process of Senedd scrutiny, and I am very much looking forward to discussing the proposals in detail, although I do hope that Members will be kind to me, as I enter those committee rooms with some level of trepidation. Of course, I am also very keen to continue my constructive engagement with Members and the Minister, and her officials in particular, and I do thank the Minister for our discussions to date. I know that the Minister understands and agrees with the principles behind the Bill. Whilst I know that there are aspects of the provisions that she feels could be changed, I really do think there is an opportunity for us to all work together to find a way to pass this Bill. I really believe that there is no need for any politics or anything like that to get in the way of delivering this Bill for the people of Wales. I am open to ideas and am willing to find a way forward over the next few months. I'm happy to let this Bill be the Senedd's Bill, and for us to collectively, together, make it happen, because the food system is inherent to the fabric of our communities and everything we do. We know that it can and must do more to support well-being and prosperity. So, let's make this a reality. Deputy Llywydd, I commend the statement and the Food (Wales) Bill to the Senedd. 

I call on the Minister for Rural Affairs and North Wales, and Trefnydd, Lesley Griffiths. 

Thank you very much, Deputy Presiding Officer, and thank you to Peter Fox for his statement, and for the conversations that we've had over a period of time, leading up to today.

I still firmly believe that this Bill is the wrong Bill, at the wrong time. Wales's Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015 already provides us with a framework and a foundation for holistic integrated policies focused on the long-term gain for citizens and society. The Welsh Government has a strong track record of partnership working, with proven mechanisms for joined-up policy and action. I do agree that we need a joined-up approach to food matters that focuses effort on well-being. The Welsh Government is already working on that through our existing policies, and with the commitment to develop a community food strategy, which empowers community-led action, strengthens communities and brings multiple well-being benefits, and I'm working with Plaid Cymru on this issue as part of the co-operation agreement. 

This Bill will not add value, but will distract, create unnecessary cost and complexity, and ultimately, will not contribute to its own very-well-intended cause. It will delay our work on community food, and, as I've said, I believe that it is the wrong Bill. The Government will underline these points as the Bill progresses, but, for today, I would like to ask the Member two questions: how will the resource-consuming bureaucracy created by the Bill actually make a difference? And in what way does the Bill help, rather than hinder, the legislative framework already put in place by the Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015? Diolch. 

Thank you, Minister, for your response. I do still respectfully disagree with you; I think there is a need for this, as respondents who have responded from all over the country—from health boards, from councils—say that there is a need for this, because there is a lack of joined-up policy in this regard. Whilst there are many good things coming forward, like the agriculture Bill and the sustainable farming scheme, they look at the producer, the production in the main; they don't take a holistic approach at how we use food in the best way to address societal issues. I know that the community food strategy is being developed, but it's very unclear what that contains, and we believe that it probably contains more around local initiatives to produce local amounts of food, but it wouldn't provide something that probably could be scaled enough to drive what I'm proposing through this Bill. 

Responding to your questions, the resources, as you'll know, in the explanatory memorandum, have been based—and there's a range of costs that they could fall within. Obviously, we need to—. Because it's a framework Bill, the discretion of what the actual costs of that are would be in the hands of the Government, in many ways. We believe that—I believe that—this Bill will give an opportunity to rationalise the food system and the regulatory framework that we have now, which will actually unlock efficiencies, and actually enable us to deliver valuable resources into other areas. I do not believe that the future generations commissioner has the capacity, nor do her food goals reflect the breadth of what we're trying to do with this Bill. The food goals we've created in this Bill synergise with the good work of the future generations commissioner, but to ask the commissioner to take on such a broad task as big as the food system is in Wales, on top of the things that she's already doing would be a big ask and it would take the commissioner's focus away from the important task they have of holding local government, other bodies and the Government to account in the areas currently looked at. So, whatever, you would have to put more resources into the future generations commission to be able to deal with the food system if you were serious about actually trying to deliver on that holistic approach for the food system. So, there is a cost, whichever way, if we're going to secure food security and make a holistic food system.

Firstly, can I congratulate the Member for Monmouth on introducing such a vital piece of legislation? As the Member has rightly highlighted in his opening statement, the Food (Wales) Bill does not just provide a foundational framework to establish a more sustainable food system in Wales, but as we've heard this afternoon it strengthens our food security, improves Wales's socioeconomic well-being and enhances consumer choices, far beyond what currently exists within the statute books. Therefore, I believe that it is the right Bill at the right time.

This piece of legislation comes at an incredible important time, not just for the agricultural industry but for the wider supply chain too. From gate to plate, field to fork, this will ensure that everyone has equal access to healthy locally sourced produce—an opportunity that not only supports our agricultural communities but sets them on a path to sustainable growth. But, in order to do this, we must use every tool in our toolbox, from utilising the framework within the agriculture Bill to developing the sustainable farming scheme. This food Bill can be the missing jigsaw piece that completes a series of measures that protect, promote and provide for the agricultural community. 

Having been on the committee scrutinising the agriculture Bill, I can assure Members that there is no duplication between these two Bills. Rather, they complement each other in a reassuring way. The sustainable farming scheme lays out post-Brexit agricultural support, the agriculture Bill provides a framework in which the industry can be safeguarded, and the Member for Monmouth's food Bill delivers the provision of affordable, healthy and economically, environmentally and socially sustainable food for the people of Wales. Basically, it ticks all the boxes that we're looking to get ticked when feeding our nation. These three parts—the SFS, agriculture Bill and the food Bill—are a ménage à trois of policy positively intertwined for productivity, procurement and prosperity. So, given this, I would be interested if the Member could further explain how his legislation will seek to supplement the four key sustainable land management objectives within the agriculture Bill.

Shifting my focus elsewhere, I was pleased to note how much industry support is there for the food Bill, which has been garnered by stakeholders. The Member's work—be that policy round-tables, regular engagement with policy experts or public consultation, which he mentioned in his opening remarks—has meant that this Bill has incorporated the support of all key stakeholders. This engagement has been most welcome. Following on from the discussions I've had with the industry, I would be interested to hear from the Member on how any potential concerns to the Bill have been alleviated within its drafting.

Lastly, from listening to the Minister's opposition to the Bill, it's clear that there remains some concern around the overlap between what Peter has proposed and the Welsh Government's community food strategy. However, I do not draw the same conclusion as the Minister, so I would be interested in learning more about the Member's views on the matter and whether you believe both frameworks are at odds with one another. 

Therefore, in conclusion, the principles, provision and policy objectives that you have outlined will not just enable a coherent, consistent and strategic policy platform on which we can legislate to enhance our food security, but you and your team have developed a framework that will enhance, strengthen and support our food system, making it fit for the challenges of the twenty-first century. It is with that that I commend the Member for Monmouth for his diligence and dedication in drafting this Bill, and I urge Members in this Siambr to support this groundbreaking piece of legislation. Diolch.

Well, can I thank you, Samuel, and can I also wish you a happy birthday today?

There is no conflict to the agriculture Bill here; my Bill creates that overarching framework where the current regulatory policy can hang under. The primary food goals and the secondary food goals enable all policy areas to contribute towards the wider aim. There is no conflict with the agriculture Bill, indeed, it can help by focusing all parts of the policy and those who interface with the policy, it can help them to come together. There were some concerns raised within the drafting of the Bill, and many people would have liked us to put more on the face of the Bill, but that is really, really difficult; every man and his dog would have liked to have had something within the Bill, it was that popular. But it was important to me to keep this as simple as possible, but what we did do was try to address some of those deeper concerns throughout the explanatory memorandum. There were issues of whether this had gone far enough with its environmental status, if you like, and we believe that we've addressed those in the explanatory memorandum, because sustainable food production that respects biodiversity and our countryside is in the DNA of this, of what we're trying to do.

I can't remember your last question. It was about—I can't remember what it was. [Laughter.] It was about compatibility— 

Peter, the Member asked you to reassert your position against the Minister's position.

My position against the Minister's? Oh, yes. Right, okay. Thank you for that, Deputy Llywydd, for reminding—[Interruption.]

I think I've captured it in some of what I said before. I believe that this is creating that overarching framework where there is a national strategy, where people can be held to account for delivering against those food targets and those food goals. At the moment, the various policies don't always get adhered to in the way that I'm sure the Government would like. So, there, you'll see some bodies delivering policy in the way it was intended, others interpreting it in a different way, so you have a lack of consistency in policy delivery across the piece. And when you have that, you have the lack of tangible data that you can use to actually influence how and where you need to change the food system, or address deficits in the food system across Wales. So, I think I've covered it.

I'm sure that the Member spoke for all Members in the Chamber when he wished the Member for Carmarthen West and South Pembrokeshire best wishes for his birthday. Mabon ap Gwynfor.

Diolch yn fawr iawn, Dirprwy Lywydd. And congratulations to Peter Fox for succeeding to bring this Bill this far, and I'd like to take a moment to express my general support for this Bill.

The COVID-19 pandemic and ongoing Russian war on Ukraine has demonstrated how sensitive food supply chains and agricultural commodities can be to global events, serving as a stark reminder of the dangers of relying on imports of food and raw materials. The pandemic ultimately had the effect of highlighting the issues surrounding the interconnectedness and the interdependence of Welsh, UK and international agri-food supply chains. It's Plaid policy that we want to see a Wales where we have an increasingly localised food system—a sustainable system backed up by a robust and financially supported agricultural sector.

Plaid Cymru wants to see a Wales where everyone has dignified access to nutritious and sustainably produced food, in a way that secures a fair income for farmers and all food sector workers. We know what needs to happen to achieve this; we need a systematic approach that addresses the severe deficiencies in our current food sector. We need to see an increase in Welsh processing capacity across the board, and to reverse the loss of local processing capacity. In public procurement, we should prioritise the purchase of Welsh-produced food. Local and regional public procurement—for example in schools, hospitals and council offices—can help create markets for local food businesses.

Further to this, and I'm sure Peter Fox will lend his support to this aim, we want to see Monmouthshire build on its reputation as the food capital of Wales. Despite the fact that the country is rich in food and drink production, we still import massive amounts of food, and we waste massive amounts of food too. The food system we have isn't sustainable economically, environmentally and culturally.

Further to this, despite the levels of food production in Wales, broadly speaking, we have extensive food poverty, and disadvantaged areas in Wales are affected disproportionately by health conditions that can largely be attributed to diet. This Bill must ensure that healthy eating is encouraged by monitoring access to healthy food in the most deprived communities and ensuring that the food system is joined up with other sectors, for instance, by ensuring cookery is on the curriculum and that this includes local ingredients and healthy local recipes. Additionally, in light of the welcome introduction of free school meals for all primary school children, it would be appropriate that a food system brought about by this Bill would ensure that food and its production would be embedded in the life of our schools, with contracts procured locally whenever possible so that children should learn where their food comes from and develop the habit of eating nutritious, locally produced food early in life, meaning they'll be healthier, with benefit for the economy and the environment.

The Welsh Government has a significant role to play in changing food culture in Wales, and this Bill should be an opportunity to do so. One area where this clearly needs to happen is in our fisheries, seafood and aquaculture sector. Wales's fisheries, seafood and aquaculture sectors have an opportunity to develop and to contribute to the ambition for Wales to be at the forefront of sustainable food production. Wales is surrounded by coastline and our seas are rich with produce, produce that could feed the nation sustainably, but, at present, the sector is struggling. It lacks support and consumers aren't taking full advantage of the delicious and nutritious bounty of our seas. To develop our coastal communities, where the majority of our population actually live and work, we need to change our attitude towards Welsh seafood, support its production and build sustainable local seafood supply chains.

I support this Bill for the many reasons I have mentioned, and I'd encourage all parties in the Senedd to do so too while ensuring that we work collaboratively, feeding into this process to ensure that we can create a food system that works for Wales and all of our communities. Diolch.

Peter, I don't think I heard a question in the Member's contribution, so if you want to respond to the Member.

Yes. I do thank you, Mabon, for your input, and you captured the essence of what this Bill is about perfectly, and I thank you for articulating it so well. It's not just about the production of sustainable food, it's about creating a sustainable industry, it's about using the quality local food to address those societal needs. We've got to start moving away from looking at everything in a financial currency and start thinking of it in a social currency. How do we start invoking change in the health system so we address obesity and things like diabetes? How do we do that? Well, of course, as Mabon said, we have to start helping people understand and children understand the benefits of quality food and how we can use it. That's why it's so important that our education system responds to that aim and that goal. If we can help people start understanding the benefits of food, they might change their food habits.

These processes are long, but you have to start somewhere, and that's the importance of a holistic approach that looks at the whole food system, not at little bits in isolation and hope that they join together in the end. You have to have this holistic picture. That's why it's so important to have that overarching strategy and a commission with the key people to sit on it who would be from all sectors of the food system and how it would work.

And Mabon, you were absolutely right about aquaculture and the opportunities for seafood to enter into our local food system. There are huge opportunities if we exploit the riches we have within our midst and strive to use more locally produced and carbon-reduced food, because we would be able to reduce the mileage that our food travels. So, there is huge opportunity. Can I thank you for your support?

Firstly, I'd like to thank my very well-respected colleague Peter Fox for his statement today, as well as put on record my thanks to him and his team for all of their effort in drafting the Bill before us today.

Now, as the regional Member for South Wales East, I represent just a little over 650,000 people and, having met hundreds of them over the past few weeks, I can assure you, having spoken to them about this Bill, they do believe it's the right time, the right place and the right moment for this Bill to progress. So, Peter, they are all 100 per cent behind you.

Without a doubt, food is fundamental to everything we do as a society, and we really need to assess whether the governance structure that we have in place is adequate for the challenges that we face not only today, but in the future as well. From my understanding of the Bill, this is something that the proposed food commission will seek to address, and I think it's a really interesting idea. However, I know that there have been some suggestions that this doesn't need to be another body and that perhaps existing structures, such as the Future Generations Commissioner for Wales, could cover the food system within their remit as well. So, Peter, could I ask why you believe a food commission is, in fact, needed, and what value do you think it will add to the governance of the food system? I know you touched upon it before, but I'd be really appreciative of a bit more information. Thank you.

Thank you, Natasha, and thank you for your support through this. Indeed, thank you to so many of you for your support through this. I think I did cover some of this earlier. I think it's absolutely fundamental that a commission—and not a commissioner, a commission—oversees the food system and its evolvement, not as a threat to Government, but working closely with Government, and probably on it. It's a framework Bill and we would leave it to the Ministers to decide the actual shape of that. But they can help and work closely with the Government in pulling forward a strategy, that holistic strategy I talked about. They can work closely with public bodies to develop their food plans, and then they can also take a role in monitoring and holding to account, where needs be, where the targets aren't being met. And I think that is fundamental. This can actually take pressure away from the Government in many ways, because it's a critical friend, a body that can actually do the hard work that is needed to make us have a resilient, sustainable food system, which we currently, sadly, haven't got. But I think, for all of the things we've seen over recent years—COVID, Ukraine—all of those things have focused our eyes on how vulnerable we are, and how vulnerable our food system is, and that's why it's important that we have this root and branch, holistic look. And I don't only think a commission is the right way to do that. However, as I said in my opening statement, I'm willing to work with anybody in this Chamber and, indeed, the Minister, to find a model that is more acceptable, if that is the need, but we mustn't lose focus of what that commission ought to be doing.

I humbly disagree with Lesley Griffiths that we don't need this Bill, because the Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015 was created in 2015, and we are now two terms later and we certainly haven't made the progress that we need to make on changing our relationship with food. The community food strategy you're working on with Plaid Cymru is a nice to have, but it is not at the centre of re-engineering—

Jenny.

—our relationship with good food.

Jenny, can you hold on a minute? We've lost your mike. It's not working. Can we check if Huw's mike is working?

I think it is working.

Jenny, yours is on now. Do you want to start again, Jenny?

Okay. I humbly disagree with the Minister for rural affairs and food. We need a whole-system change that we simply haven't achieved from the well-being of future generations Act, which was introduced in the fourth term, and we are now in the sixth term of this Parliament. The community food strategy the Minister is working on with Plaid Cymru is a nice to have, but it simply isn't at the centre of re-engineering our relationship with food, which is currently completely distorted by the dominance of the obesogenic food industry.

I can list at least six other ministries that need to be paying attention to this. First of all, the agriculture Bill and the sustainable farming scheme that it proposes to embed simply isn't clear enough, because the farming unions are saying that they do not understand what they are being asked to do. So, we need to have some greater clarity on the strategic importance of growing the food that we need to ensure the food security of our country.

Secondly, the new curriculum is really fantastic, and its emphasis on well-being is another opportunity to change the relationship of children with food. By the time they're three, they have already imbibed poor habits from generations of people who've not had that close relationship with food.

We start with breastfeeding. We have the worst breastfeeding rates for the whole of Europe, as far as I’m aware, despite the fact that it helps children not get childhood ear, chest and gut infections and offers protection, lifetime protection, from other life-threatening conditions. For women, it lowers the risk of breast and ovarian cancer, osteoporosis, cardiovascular disease—

Jenny, you need to ask your question now, please.

—and obesity. And yet, the amount that we spend on breastfeeding is absolutely negligible. So, we absolutely need to change children's relationship with food.

If we're going to continue to be able to afford to roll out universal free school meals to all primary schools and beyond, we hope, in secondary schools, the £260 million that we are currently dedicating to that will only be affordable in the long term if we are drawing the ingredients for that food from our foundational economy. And that means developing those local food networks.

Then, on climate change—

Jenny, can you ask your question, please?

—food is the largest emitter of carbon emissions by individual households—bigger than going on a plane, bigger than their transport costs, bigger than heating their homes. 

Lastly, clearly, the Minister for Social Justice must be involved in ensuring that everybody has access to healthy food, and her deputy, in charge of the Social Partnership and Public Procurement (Wales) Bill, needs to pay much more attention to how we're going to publicly procure food locally. This is a journey, not an event, and therefore I strongly support—. I do not understand how you're going to do all of this complex work without this food commission. What is your strategy if you cannot get the Government to set up a food commission?

Before Peter answers, can I remind Members that this is a statement, not a debate? Therefore, there are time limits that have to be adhered to, please. Peter.

Thank you, Jenny, and thank you for your support. Can I thank you for the work that you're doing in this area within the cross-party working group for school meals, and what you are aspiring to see? I've been happy to work with you on there, because we need to alter the nature of the food that our young people are accessing. We need local, sustainable food within our communities. Sadly, we heard, didn’t we, through the cross-party working group, that often procurement contracts are based 70 per cent on cost, 30 per cent on quality. That’s wrong. That’s morally wrong, when we have such high-quality local produce that we could put into our public services, into our schools.

I believe too, as you do, that the commission—or a body similar to it, with expertise from education, from health, from Welsh Government, from producers, from consumers—needs to be together to shape the whole, holistic picture. You can’t have one person who specialises just in agriculture to be able to shape a whole food system. You need somebody with all of those talents, all of that expertise, to come together to create this holistic picture. That’s why I was against one commissioner. I feel that it needs a breadth of expertise. And as I said, the shape of this would sit with the Government—it’s a framework Bill—in how they would put that together, and they could put it together in a way that actually achieves the targets that the Bill is looking at and achieves their own targets. So, I do believe that a commission, or something very similar, has to happen.

I do not believe—and I will reiterate it again—that the future generations commissioner would have the capacity or scope to pick this up. Indeed, the commissioner has been extremely supportive and has recognised our Bill in her recent report. I think that she recognises that there is a huge piece of work here. We've tried to do it in such a way that there is a synergy between how we’ve put this together and all the other policies in the framework that currently exists.

I’d just firstly like to start by paying tribute to Peter Fox for all the hard work the Member for Monmouth has done to date to get the Bill to this point. The purpose of this Bill is admirable and timely, and I strongly disagree with the Minister: it is the right Bill at the right time. It aims to establish a more sustainable food system here in Wales, which certainly the country has been crying out for for some time, encouraging joined-up thinking across stakeholders, which has sadly been lacking to date.

The aim is to establish a more sustainable food system in Wales. This means strengthening our food security through resilient supply chains, supporting development of our food industry, and increasing consumer knowledge of where food comes from. Gaining this knowledge I know to be crucial, especially in our schools. The Bill really has an opportunity not only to ensure we’re sustainable as a nation whilst increasing our food security, but also it is a huge opportunity to really transform food education and the quality and localness of food in Wales’s schools, as you’ve already touched on, reducing those food miles and supporting local economies and rural communities through local procurement. It would be great if that was the outcome of this Bill, which I know is what you intend, Peter. I’ve no doubt that using local food in our schools would not only improve education on where food comes from, but the importance of buying local, and the environmental impact of doing so, as well as the equality of improving the health of our children and tackling childhood obesity.

So, you’ve touched on it already, but what conversations have you had with schools, with local authorities and producers—as you outlined already that you were interested in—regarding this, when you were putting together this Bill? I do strongly believe, Deputy Presiding Officer, that it’s time to celebrate, support and utilise our local produce in an effective and efficient way, finally, and that’s why I urge everybody in this Chamber today to support Peter Fox’s Food (Wales) Bill.

Thank you, Laura, and education is absolutely fundamental and at the core of this. It is morally wrong in this day and age that we see obesity climbing as it is, especially in our young people. If we don’t act now—it’s not dissimilar to the climate change argument—what happens in the future? We have to, it’s our responsibility to lay the foundations of a better system for our children and young people, and education has to be at the core of that. As Jenny said earlier, the curriculum is a real opportunity to shape education and help people understand how to use food better, the benefits of food, and change their eating habits, and then perhaps those young people can go home and change the way their families think, because this is a very big issue. It’s not going to happen overnight, but you need to start nudging it.

I was very pleased through the consultation to have many local authorities contact us and contribute, and you can find those all on the website, wanting the stability that this Bill would give them, this guidance, this strategy, so they had something to work towards. And individual authorities I’ve spoken to welcome this, because they’re already trying to do things in this way. Cardiff is a great example. Monmouthshire, my own authority, and others have examples of trying to do more on local produce, but they need this framework to work towards, and that’s what isn’t in place, and that’s what we need to put in place, so that everybody knows where their place is in the food system to achieve those food goals and targets.

I genuinely congratulate Peter on getting it to this stage. It doesn’t have a good track record, getting private Members’ backbench business through this place. But genuinely, a lot of work has gone into this.

My questions in a minute, really quickly, to rattle off, are: this is described frequently as ‘holistic’, but as Jenny pointed out, and if I had more time I’d point out as well, I don’t think it’s comprehensive. It’s holistic, but not comprehensive, so curiously, rather than some grand scheme that pulls everything together, what I’d prefer to see is actually actions driven to get on with what we should be doing. So, my question to him as a reluctant legislator, but a supporter of backbench legislation, is: what in this actually does duplicate, and could be left out from legislation, that you could just say to the Minister, ‘Minister, get on with whatever you currently have there’?

Secondly, the issue of the costs within this. They aren’t gone into in detail. I understand why. But at this very moment in time, is it appropriate to set up another commission, et cetera, rather than actually saying to the existing mechanisms, ‘Get on with it. You’ve been tasked to do this, so get on with it’?

And, in the five seconds remaining, in the local food plans, which I’m really excited about the idea of that, who are those public boards? You've mentioned local authorities, health boards. What about regional partnership boards? What about the voluntary sector and the third sector who provide the food pantries, the foodbanks, and everything else? What about the community growers, and so on—where do they feature within this? Where does the third sector fit?

Where does procurement fit into this? Have we given consideration to local, fresh-first legislation, as they do in Italy, which says that's the first call on any procurement? And what about the right to food as a fundamental issue? So, it's holistic, but I'm not sure it's comprehensive, and if you can't proceed with this, are there other ways to take some of the good points within this forward?

Thank you, Huw. I think if you read through the explanatory memorandum, all 123 pages, you will find the answers to every one of those questions, in quite considerable detail, in many ways. You ask what can the Government get on with. Well, I've set food goals and targets, because there aren't any at the moment. There's who's holding who to account in the country for delivering against food goals. We're not seeing those. Public services are crying out for food goals, they're crying out for direction and things they can aspire to. 

The costs, as I touched on earlier, I have to go through a certain process, as you'll be well aware, and we've given a range of costs in comparison to other commissioners. As I said earlier, if you truly embraced what this is trying to do and you wanted the future generations commissioner or another commissioner to embrace this, you would have to put resource into that to unlock the capacity to deliver this. If there is a desire for a food strategy and a system that delivers all we want—.

And when I say 'holistic', I say 'holistic' because it's the only word I can find to describe a whole picture. In my mind's eye, I regularly see a strategy. I see production at the bottom, a strategy over the top and the use of that food within that circle of life going to help the health of young people, helping those societal issues, driving the sustainable change. And, at the moment, the system does not do that. It satisfies the bottom of the circle—the production, the sustainable, hitting carbon, all this—but we have not seen a community food strategy that delivers against those wider societal issues.

In Scotland, you've got the Good Food Nation (Scotland) Act 2022, which is not dissimilar to what we're doing; you've got a strategy in England. There is no strategy here. There is no strategy, and you have to have a strategy to be able to start to deliver. And you need, like we've put here, goals and targets so that people can be held to account for making sure that we bring the change this country and our young people desperately need.

Finally, Tom Giffard. 

Diolch, Dirprwy Lywydd. Can I also welcome Peter Fox's statement this afternoon? As I share an office or have an office next door to yours upstairs, Peter, I know how hard you have worked on this Bill and your staff—in particular, Tyler Walsh—as well, so I think that's worth mentioning. 

I think this is, as others have said, the right Bill at the right time, because it delivers that joined-up approach to the food system. And what I wanted to come back to, which we have touched a little bit on, was the local food strategies, as drafted. As you know, probably more than anyone in this Chamber, councils will have already a lot of reporting requirements placed on them as a result of Government legislation that already exists, and we're aware that with each new regulation, each new Bill that gets passed through here, that requires financial and human resources for those councils, which, in some cases, are quite stretched already. So, how would you ensure that, from this Bill, councils see the opportunities that it can provide and not the burdens? How would they add value to those plans and facilitate community actions, rather than feel they're imposing them on their local communities as well? Thank you.

Thank you, Tom, and thank you for that challenge, and I know it's done as a critical friend. Food plans, I think, are absolutely fundamental to this. As I said earlier, there are many authorities trying to do things around food, but there is no joined-up approach across Wales to do this. We need local authorities to be able to—. We need to encourage them to regulate, if need be—well, this would require—for them to procure more locally. What the shape and the level and the target of that procurement is for the Government to set. But don't forget, local authorities have a responsibility for the young people they serve and they should aspire to this, and not everything should be seen, as I said earlier, in monetary terms. There's a social currency to these things, if we really want to make change. The councils I have spoken to have welcomed it. Look at my consultation responses from Monmouth, from Swansea; look at the health board responses from Betsi Cadwaladr to our own health board, who say there is a need for this and the importance of it. These are the people I'm asking to put a food plan in. They're not saying, 'We don't want one; this is extra bureaucracy.' What they're saying is, 'Yes, we need it.' And that's why I absolutely believe we're heading in the right way with food plans, as is put in place in Scotland and is proved all over many countries.

I thank Peter Fox.