Thank you very much, Sam Kurtz, for your welcoming of the statement and the delivery plan, and, also, for your words of support, and I'm grateful for the work you did in Pembrokeshire on our behalf. Just to reassure Sam Kurtz and every other Member, and, indeed, every farmer in Wales, I would never be complacent. While you're quite right that the long-term disease statistics do show progress, which, of course, is to be welcomed, we still do, obviously, have a long way to go. I've always collaborated; since I've been in this portfolio, it has always been an area that I've worked towards improving, because, as I said, the Government cannot do this on its own. 

I welcome the appointment of Dr Richard Irvine, who's joined us in the public gallery today. As you say, he comes with a great deal of experience in the field of TB eradication, so I did think it was very important, while he's only been with us for a couple of weeks—we've had, obviously, meetings and a couple of conversations around it, and he's had significant input into the statement today. But, clearly, this is a piece of work that we'll be taking forward as we look at the delivery plan. Next time I update Members, I'm sure that there will be far more input from Richard, going forward.

It is really important that we learn lessons from elsewhere, and, as you say, Dr Irvine worked in DEFRA before. But, it's a very small field of CVOs—just the four of them—and they worked very closely together, so I know that we've already learnt lessons from DEFRA and working very closely together.

You talk about improved communication, and this was an area that clearly needed to be looked at significantly. In my oral statement, I referred to a letter that had gone out to farmers in Anglesey, and I think you can see from that, if you've been able to see one of those—it's much more simple than, perhaps, previously. But, just to reassure everyone, I meet with the mental health charities in Wales and they will have had an input into this, because whenever I meet them, and I meet them regularly, clearly a farm that is having TB testing has significant concerns. I do not underestimate how distressing and stressful it is for a farmer as they approach that time.

Certainly, lay testers is an area that I really want to improve, because we know that we're struggling with the capacity of vets for a variety of reasons, which are very well rehearsed. So, I think the more we can do in relation to that the better. 

Cattle vaccination—as I said in my opening statement, we're now in phase 2. I think it's incredibly disappointing that we haven't been able to have any farms in Wales participating. We are relying on English farms, and I think that is very disappointing. I've asked my officials to do some considerable engagement between phase 1 and phase 2 with our farmers to try to secure some farms here in Wales to be part of the trial, because I do think it would be beneficial. I understand that we do now have a number of possible candidates who have been shortlisted for participation who may be able to do this.

You referred to the Pembrokeshire project, and you're quite right, because of procurement issues, we haven't been able to get on with this as quickly as I certainly would have wanted to, and probably everybody else as well. Unfortunately, there are procurement rules that we have to abide by, and I know that you will appreciate that. We've got to follow that due process before we are able to take a project forward. We've got to have that open and fair competition.

Around on-farm slaughter, we have to look at this again. Back in 2019, I think it was, we piloted on-farm euthanasia for heavily pregnant cattle and, unfortunately, the uptake was quite low. There were quite difficult logistical difficulties in removing TB-affected animals within the 10 working days, and the pilot was ceased. So, I will have discussions with Dr Irvine to see if there's anything that we can do there. If you've got a TB breakdown, as I say, it's very distressing; it's devastating. If we want to avoid as much distress as possible, this is certainly an area we need to continue to work with. As I say, we did a significant piece of work with the industry probably four or five years ago, but it is something that I have asked Dr Irvine to look at again, because, clearly, it's something that is very distressing. I've received correspondence from farmers, so I think we do need to have a look at that again.