This brings us on to item 12, which is Stage 4 of the Agriculture (Wales) Bill, and I call on the Minister to move the motion—Lesley Griffiths. 

Motion NDM8308 Lesley Griffiths

To propose that the Senedd, in accordance with Standing Order 26.47:

Approves the Agriculture (Wales) Bill.

Motion moved.

Diolch, Llywydd. Today, I'm pleased to open the Stage 4 debate on the Agriculture (Wales) Bill. I am immensely proud of the agriculture sector in Wales and the collaboration we've achieved to create this first agriculture Bill for Wales, a Bill that truly works for Welsh farmers, the agriculture sector, our land and Wales as a whole. The result is an ambitious and transformational piece of legislation that reforms decades of European Union agricultural support. It heralds a significant change in our approach to support the agriculture sector here in Wales, recognising the substantial economic, cultural, social and environmental benefits that result from farming. 

Our priorities are to keep farmers on their land, to ensure support is targeted towards those farmers who are actively managing Welsh land, and to do so sustainably. This creates resilient farm businesses, which contribute to thriving rural communities and culture, including improved access to our countryside and sustaining our Welsh language. The Bill establishes sustainable land management as the framework for future agricultural support and regulation. It provides a clear and ambitious policy direction for Welsh Ministers to take action—for example, to support Welsh farmers to produce food in a sustainable manner and to contribute against the climate and nature emergencies, and, in doing so, meeting the needs of the present and future generations and contributing to the well-being goals of the Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015. Through this legislation, Wales will also be the first of the UK nations to ban the use of snares and glue traps. I believe it is important to note the significance of this programme for government commitment being achieved, truly reflecting the high animal welfare standards we strive for here in Wales.

The Bill is the result of years of policy work, co-design, consultation and stakeholder engagement. I have many people to thank who've helped shape this important piece of legislation: firstly, all Senedd Members and stakeholders who've provided significant and vital scrutiny and debate in producing this made-in-Wales Bill, and also to Plaid Cymru, particularly Cefin Campbell, for their engagement and collaboration with the Bill through the co-operation agreement, and I look forward to continuing to work with you all on the longer term arrangements for Welsh agriculture. I believe the amendments made to the Bill as a result of the Senedd's scrutiny have enhanced it. I would also like to thank the thousands of farmers and foresters who responded to our consultations, those who worked with us through co-design and those who've kindly shown me and my officials around their farms and discussed their views and, importantly, shared their expertise with me.

Thank you to the Senedd lawyers, committee clerks and other Commission staff for their work and support throughout the Bill process, and, of course, to the many Welsh Government officials who've worked on this piece of legislation over the past few years. My final 'thank you' is to my Bill team, along with my special adviser, who are all in the public gallery. You have shown incredible commitment and should be very proud to have played a part in this landmark legislation, one which will make a real difference to our Welsh agricultural sector and present and future generations of farmer. I owe you a personal 'thank you' for all of your support to me, for your hard work and for always helping me and each other find a way through the inevitable barriers, challenges and hurdles that always appear during the long passage of a Bill. Diolch yn fawr iawn. Llywydd, I urge all Members to support the Agriculture (Wales) Bill.

Can I start by thanking the Minister firstly for her engagement with me in my role as shadow Minister for rural affairs throughout the process of this Bill? This is, indeed, the first Bill that I've worked on as a Member of the Senedd, and I remember vividly the time when Andrew R.T. Davies sat me down and presented me with my portfolio of rural affairs and the Welsh language. Instantly, I was filled with excitement and a little bit of trepidation, as a farmer's son, to stand up and represent an industry that I'm incredibly passionate about. But I've really found the relationship working with the Minister incredibly worthwhile in bringing forward what I think is an incredibly important and timely Bill for agricultural here in Wales. It is a Welsh-born, Welsh-bred piece of legislation, which is incredibly important, and has come a long way from the initial consultation 'Brexit and our land' to where we are here today. 

I also pay tribute to Cefin Campbell, and to Mabon hefyd, for the work that they've done in bringing forward some of my amendments that I brought forward at Stage 2, which have made their way onto the Bill via the co-operation agreement at Stage 3, namely the multi-annual financial plans, productivity reporting, renewables on farm, which I know Jane Dodds, the Liberal Democrat Member, brought forward as well, and the superaffirmative action to change the definition of 'agriculture'. These were key calls from the industry and stakeholders with regard to the agricultural Bill, and I'm pleased, whichever way they came forward, that they are now going to be the on the statute book as part of this Bill.

I think what's been a big takeaway for me from this as well is this is no longer a binary choice between agriculture and the environment. I noticed at the Royal Welsh Show last year, from listening to the environmental non-governmental organisations and the farming unions, that there is a collective responsibility here of wanting to do better for the environment and wanting to support our agricultural industry too in continuing to provide high-quality food, in continuing to protect our environment, do so better and, indeed, to protect our rural communities. The phrase I used at the National Farmers Union food and farming event last week was, 'Agriculture is the silver thread that runs through the cultural fabric of Wales.' I think that's incredibly important.

But now, there is still some concern that the Bill didn't go far enough in understanding and acknowledging the economic viability of family farms in black and white on there, but I know, through the co-operation agreement and an amendment that I put forward myself, that that has been noted and strengthened in one of the SLM objectives.

I'd like to just take the opportunity as well to congratulate Llyr on his appointment as the Plaid Cymru spokesperson on rural affairs. I look forward to working with you, Llyr, in keeping the Government honest in agricultural policy going forward.

But focus now does turn to the sustainable farming scheme, ensuring that it does support Wales's farmers to be productive, to be environmentally sustainable, and I think that's incredibly important. But it must be accessible to all of Wales's farmers, be they commoners, lowland farmers, highland farmers or, indeed, tenant farmers. I'm incredibly pleased that we've passed this Stage, and I look forward to continuing to work with the Minister on the sustainable farming scheme, knowing that a statement is coming forward in the next few weeks. I think this is a momentous day for the agricultural industry here in Wales. Diolch, Llywydd.

It's a privilege to contribute for the first time as Plaid Cymru's new spokesperson on rural affairs. I look forward to working with stakeholders, with Members across the Chamber, and, of course, to scrutinise and to work with the Minister too.

I think it is appropriate that we start by acknowledging the contribution that everyone made towards this Bill on its journey—and it has been quite a journey, if you think back to the publication of 'Brexit and our land' back in 2018, and that title reminds us why the Bill is happening at all. But the Bill, of course, that we have today at Stage 4 is quite different to the original proposal that was outlined initially five years ago. It now gives far more direct recognition and far more robust recognition of the need to protect and strengthen agriculture and the rural communities that are so reliant on the industry. It's difficult to believe, at the outset, that food production wasn't acknowledged as a public good. For me, it's the most important public good in that it feeds the nation, but at least now the Bill does acknowledge the importance of food production as a core role of the industry here in Wales.

The Bill before us today also gives recognition to the important contribution of the agricultural community to the rural economy and the need to strengthen the sector's contribution to the vibrancy of those communities that wasn't included in the original Bill, perhaps. Likewise, supporting the contribution of the agriculture sector to Welsh culture and the Welsh language is also now an explicit feature of the Bill in a way that wasn't there at the outset. It's important, as we’ve heard, to recognise that ensuring a multi-annual plan is now a feature, going from three years to five years. I would remind everyone that it was seven years before we left the EU, but I do welcome the fact that we're moving in the right direction there.

It has been a journey, and it's only fair for me, like others, to acknowledge the work of some of my colleagues in the Plaid Cymru group: Mabon ap Gwynfor, as party spokesperson as this Bill took its journey through the Senedd; Luke Fletcher, a member of the committee that scrutinised the Bill; and also, as we’ve heard, to Cefin Campbell as the designated Member, who’s had an influence on this Bill through his work as part of the co-operation agreement. Thank you to them. Thank you also to the strong voices from the relevant sectors who have again had a great influence on this Bill.

Plaid Cymru will be supporting the Bill today. Perhaps it's imperfect, and it will be something that we will continue to work on as we now move on to the next phase, but it wouldn't be possible to provide any support for the sector unless this Bill were to be passed, and I don't think anyone wants to see that happening. But this isn't the end of the journey, of course, because in the Government's legislative statement made by the First Minister earlier, he said that this was the first step in the Government's programme to reform agriculture. So, the journey is just beginning but the battle is also beginning to secure the best outcomes for agriculture, the environment and rural communities, and as we’ve heard, they do go hand in hand. They do go hand in hand, and the success of all three has to be a focus of our work on every turn in the journey. The Bill creates a framework, so we now turn our focus to the sustainable farming scheme. That's what we need to focus on, and I and Plaid Cymru look forward to playing a full part in influencing the form and content of that plan as we move forward.

As any Bill progresses through, Ministers should be pulled every which way but when. They should be under demands from one side and another to try and modify the Bill. I just want to give you credit, Minister, that faced with quite divergent views on what the agriculture Bill should be, you’ve talked to a lot of groups, a lot of organisations, a lot of backbenchers as well, as well as frontbench spokesmen, and you have made adjustments, and this Bill is better for it. We’ve heard of some of those that reflect the rural community, the agricultural community, working farmers, and so on.

I also want to give you credit, even though amendments to this extent weren’t brought forward, for reflecting debate at earlier stages, where we asked for commitments that are being delivered, to update the explanatory memorandum to give reference explicitly to the COP 15 Kunming-Montréal global biodiversity framework, to make sure that any future scheme that comes from this agri Bill will have regard to future nature restoration and biodiversity strategies produced by the Welsh Government, including those that follow on from the COP 15 that Julie James attended, and so on. It's a string of commitments you did. When we get to the end of this passage, everybody in a sense should be a little bit dissatisfied, because everybody has not got exactly what they want, but this Bill is singularly better for the engagement that you and your team of officials have had all the way through this, and I commend you for this.

Can I also thank the ETRA committee? The climate change committee was not the primary committee on this, but you invited us along to one of your sessions we took part in. We not only enjoyed that, but I think hopefully we added something to the mix of some aspects as well of your deliberations, and we kept our continued involvement with this as it went through.

Minister, this really is a good job, but the agri Bill is not the end of everything. There's the sustainable farming scheme coming forward, the regulations that flow from this, what we’ve heard today in the future legislative programme on environmental governance and what we do on nature restoration and targets. This is not the end of it, but I think what we can agree on is the point that Sam just made: this is not a zero-sum game where one side wins out, another loses; this is all of us in together to provide good livelihoods in good communities, in rural communities with agriculture thriving and at the same time, delivering nature restoration.

The one thing I will say—I'll come back, Minister, but it probably won't be for you directly or there might be something we can do in the sustainable farming scheme and so on—is that the bit that we didn't quite bolt down on this was the issue around access. I know we'll have other Bills coming forward, but there are some things that could be tightened up in the final stages, as your team of officials sit up there looking down, thinking, 'We're done'. Hell, no, this person is going to be coming back at you going, 'There are some tweaks we can just make here to make sure that access is also reflected in the way we take forward the SFS and other aspects'. But there'll be other Bills as well. 

Minister, very well done indeed, and thank you, from my heart, for your engagement on this.

The Minister to reply? No. 

I think everything's been said. 

So, there will be a recorded vote on Stage 4 of this Bill in accordance with Standing Order 26.50C and that will happen at the end of today's proceedings. We are making our way to the end of proceedings, but we're not quite there.