Item 6 is the statement by the Minister for Climate Change on data on coal tip locations. I call on the Minister to make the statement—Julie James.

Diolch, Dirprwy Lywydd. I am pleased to update the Senedd today on the publication of disused coal tip locations. We have made significant progress since the First Minister established the coal tip safety taskforce after the landslide in Tylorstown in February 2020. One of our key objectives was to address the gap in information about the number and location of disused coal tips across Wales. We commissioned the Coal Authority to map these tips, and I would like to thank the Coal Authority, local authorities and Natural Resources Wales for their help and support in preparing the data for publication. It has been a mammoth undertaking to identify, record and categorise all disused coal tips in Wales into a single central database, which did not exist before.

In October 2021, I published the number of tips by local authority. This data set has enabled the taskforce to prioritise inspections and maintenance works on the category C and D tips. Tip information has already been shared with local authorities and local resilience forums to assist development of emergency preparedness plans where required for the higher rated tips. However, as the publication of the locations of tips involved personal data and individual properties, it was vital we had a high level of confidence in the boundary information before making it publicly available. We have had to tackle an immensely complicated coal tip ownership landscape and undertake a lengthy, painstaking quality assurance exercise of the data.

Today marks a major milestone, as I have published on the Welsh Government website both the updated number of tips across Wales, and, importantly, also the locations of all 350 category C and D tips in Wales. The category of a tip is based on a number of things. For this data release, we have focused on category C and D tips, as they are more likely to need frequent inspections, so we can identify and carry out any maintenance when needed. It does not mean they are unsafe, but they may be larger and are more likely to be closer to communities or major infrastructure. This work is very much a live project, and we will continue to further quality assure the location information of the remaining tip categories, and we can expect further adjustments as the work progresses.

We have now written to over 1,500 landowners and nearly 600 occupiers of properties across Wales, to inform them that they are likely to have all or part of a disused coal tip on their land. Before I go any further, I want to make it clear that today's publication does not mean there is an immediate issue with any specific disused coal tip. More than three years on from the Tylorstown landslide, there is a dedicated Welsh Government programme in place to regularly inspect and maintain these disused coal tips, and we know significantly more about these tips than we did before. All that is being asked of home owners and occupiers is to allow access to their land to representatives from the Coal Authority or local authority to undertake inspections or maintenance works, when these are needed.

However, I am aware that this may be the first time many people will be aware of the existence of a coal tip, or part of a coal tip, on their property, and individuals and communities will, quite rightly, likely have questions. We are providing a package of supporting information for disused coal tip owners and occupiers, the wider coalfield communities, the public, and local representatives including Members in this Senedd. We have a dedicated webpage on the Welsh Government website, and we will also be holding public drop-in sessions in communities impacted around Wales over the coming weeks. Online events are also available for those who cannot attend a drop-in session.

All taskforce partners are working collaboratively on an inspection and maintenance regime, which helps all of us take the most effective action to keep communities safe. All category C and D tips have been inspected. We have commissioned the Coal Authority to inspect all category C coal tips once a year, and category D coal tips twice per year. We have also commissioned the Coal Authority to begin inspecting category B tips.

The regular inspections help us to monitor any maintenance works that may be required, and we have made available £44.4 million to local authorities to carry out works on both public and privately owned tips. Part of this funding has of course helped support the remediation of the Tylorstown tip. When the First Minister visited the works earlier this summer, he was very impressed with the progress made. Since remediation work began, nearly 400,000 tonnes of debris has been moved from the tip, including nearly 60,000 tonnes from the river. The removed debris is being used to create a wildlife meadow. We are also undertaking a wide-ranging programme of technology trials on some of our category C and D coal tips to determine their suitability in contributing to the safe and effective management of disused coal tips. The outcomes of the trials will inform the long-term technology and monitoring strategy of the future management regime. 

But, Deputy Llywydd, our work does not stop there. In our programme for government, we are also committed to introducing legislation during this Senedd term. Our priority is to ensure that people living and working near coal tips feel safe and secure both now and in the future. And our proposals for a new regime aim to achieve just that by setting in place a long-term, fit-for-purpose regime for disused tip safety. This will be led by a newly created public body solely focused on this work. The First Minister included the disused tips Bill in his summer 2023 legislative statement, and I look forward to the progression of the Bill when it is introduced to the Senedd next year. Diolch.

Thank you, Minister, for your statement today. I'd like to take the opportunity to thank you for the meeting we had last week to discuss the release of this very important data set. The worrying scenes that we witnessed in Tylorstown in 2020 are a reminder to us of the legacy and impact of our industrial past, and I fully support the action taken by you and the Welsh Government in tackling this issue, and to start by mapping all the coal tip sites in Wales. It allows for more consistent data and it allows for all those concerned to access the same relevant information and to work towards the same principles, which of course is vital for delivering results, going forward. Like you in your statement today, I also want to take this opportunity to reassure residents, especially those just discovering that they might be living next to a coal tip, not to worry, and that this list does not mean there is an immediate issue with any of these tips being listed.

In a technical briefing this morning, I must admit I was surprised to hear that some owners are unaware that they have disused coal tips on their land, and this just demonstrates the complexity of the task ahead of us. In the briefing, we were also informed that about 6 per cent of all disused coal tips do not have a clearly defined owner or have no available ownership information. And with this in mind, Minister, I'm interested to know what action could be taken in terms of monitoring and maintaining these sites when this is the case. Will access to the site be given, as it where? And will necessary maintenance automatically be carried out? Or is there any legality that prevents you from doing this?

Also, Minister, is there any recourse for owners who may have been told that a disused coal tip is on their land to dispute that finding? As you can no doubt appreciate, there may well be legal or insurance issues for owners if they have wrongly been identified as the legal owners of a site, and this could cause considerable problems if they were to try and sell their land at a later stage. Given the complexity and the high number of shared owners of disused coal tips, I anticipate that this data may well, understandably, cause issues for some people.

In your statement today, you specifically mentioned the category C and D sites, and that these sites will now be reviewed once and twice a year respectively. I'm conscious that C and D sites doesn't necessarily mean that they posed the worst risk, I am interested to know how often the A and B sites will be monitored, and what is the potential for sites to change category? How likely will it be that a category B site could move to either a C or D category? I ask this, Minister, because I want to know the potential for other sites that have been assessed as low risk becoming problematic in the future.

As you have mentioned, £44.4 million of Welsh Government funding has been allocated for coal tip maintenance for three years, with the expectation that all this money will be spent on making many of the disused coal tips safe during this period. What financial expectations do you now have in terms of further finances being needed? Do you expect the £44.4 million to be enough to make all category C and D coal tips structurally safe, and therefore only small amounts of funding will be needed for ongoing review, or do you expect that major funding will still need to be going forward?

Finally, in your statement, you have made specific comments regarding the work being undertaken at the Tylorstown tip concerning the remediation of debris and the creation of wildlife meadows. I am grateful to Rhondda Cynon Taf County Borough Council for allowing me to visit this work being undertaken, but I'm keen to know what steps have been taken to protect and even promote the specific biodiversity that is only found on coal tips in Wales. I'm conscious, as everyone here is, that public safety is paramount, but as you know, Minister, disused coal tips and colliery spoil sites have become rich in biodiversity, with characteristic flora and fauna unseen elsewhere that boasts many scarce, rare and unique species, such as the dingy skipper butterfly, the red-backed mining bee and, my personal favourites, the beast of Beddau and the Maerdy monster millipedes. Many of these are classed as conservation priorities and are at risk of disappearing if remediation works do not take them into account. So, with this in mind, how do you envisage this newly released data set being used to map out and protect that biodiversity? Thank you.

Diolch, Joel. So, there is a series of questions there, many of which are answered on the website, but I'll just briefly run through them. So, I just want to put a few issues to bed, though. I understand you're asking it the other way up, but we've had conversations with both the Association of British Insurers, with UK Finance and the lenders, and with the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors, and we don't think there is any insurance or sale issue with being identified as having a coal tip as part of the curtilage of your building. So, we absolutely do want people to be sure that they are or aren't part of the regime, though, so if people do think that there's an issue with the mapping, there's a perfectly reasonable way of querying that and making sure that it's checked. But one of the reasons that we're happy to issue this data today is that we have quality assured this, because it was quite clear that the data was not as reliable as we'd have liked it to have been until this point in time. And it has taken a number of years to get to this point in time for quality assurance. But there is a system on there if you think that you've been wrongly identified, or indeed the other way around—if you think you should have been identified, there is a methodology for that on the website.

In terms of the credibility of the classification, we've had an inspection regime for some time now. We've paid the Coal Authority some £3 million in order to do this work for us. The C and D tips are the higher risk categories, and by 'higher risk' we mean there's a need for more inspection regimes to ensure the integrity of the tip; we don't mean that they're an immediate risk to the public. It's important to make that distinction. We will be moving on, as I said, to the A, B, and R category tips, but we've already done a preliminary inspection of what we know, and we're very happy that the characterisation is one that holds. So, A and B category tips are less higher risk, in the sense that they need much less inspection and maintenance in order to make sure that they remain safe and aren't likely to slide or do anything else. So, this is very much, Dirprwy Lywydd, a message of reassurance to people that the inspection regimes are there and that all they need to do is make sure that, if requested, they allow access for inspection on their land. Many people will only have a foot of the tail end of a coal tip at the end of their back garden, so this isn't something to worry about.

And then in terms of the overarching point, it won't be a surprise to anyone who lives in the rich south Valleys heritage areas that there are coal tips in their vicinity. I don't think that anyone buying a house in any of the areas that my family come from would be amazed to discover that there had been a coal mine nearby. Indeed, my father worked in one near where I live. So, this isn't a huge surprise to people, but it might be a surprise that they have a small amount of it in their back garden, or maybe they think they do have one, and actually it turns out that the map shows that they don't. But if you direct your constituents into the website, it's really clear how you go about querying that if you're not happy with the information. But, most people will have received a letter telling them their individual circumstances straight up.

And then the last piece is a very important piece on the biodiversity. We absolutely know that many of them have naturalised. Part of the maintenance and inspection regime is to make sure that we do preserve both the heritage aspects and the biodiversity aspects, and where debris does have to be moved, as you saw in the example in Tylorstown, it is used to great effect to make sure that we can create something good out of it.

Thank you to the Minister.

Thank you very much for the statement and also for the technical briefing that you've provided. It was very useful. Now, I agree utterly with the points that have been made that reassuring the public is vitally important with this. Of course, in the future, some of these tips could pose a threat, which is why it's so important that this work is under way, to make sure that all of that is analysed and that people are kept abreast of that. Now, the UK Government does have responsibility to put right the legacy of their neglect here in Wales, and, as I understand it, they've refused to pay towards this. We would reaffirm that communities must be safeguarded, that of course the Welsh Government must play its part in ensuring that this happens, but Westminster must pay towards this. 

I have some specific questions, Minister. The £44.4 million that's available from the Welsh Government for local councils to carry out these works, both public and privately owned tips—that is very welcome. I'd ask what will happen after the end of that money comes to an end, then, in the years 2024-25. Now, coal tips, of course, are a legacy of the country's industrial history—that predates devolution. The UK Government, as I've said, needs to bear some of these costs, particularly, I think, the longer term costs of making those coal tips, which may pose a risk in the future, safe, because we know that increased rainfall, which is associated with climate change, has the potential to further destabilise these tips. Now, I don't want to worry people; I think that it's really important to reassure people that we're talking about things that could happen and we need to stop happening in the future, but studies have suggested a 5 per cent increase of rain could be seen during the winters in the southern parts of Wales by the 2050s. So, this isn't just a safety issue, it's a matter of historical, social and climate justice. 

The UK Government reaped the benefits of the coal industry. It ripped wealth from our communities and then it deindustrialised them without a plan for the future, leaving our communities to suffer. So, the risks of climate change will only exacerbate this issue. I welcome the fact that the Welsh Government is publishing the location data of all category C and D disused coal tips in Wales, and I think that the interactive map is a really good idea. Now, you've already indicated, Minister, that this is an issue of great sensitivity; that lots of people will have concerns, particularly, as has already been mentioned, if people find out for the first time that they live near or that they operate a business in the shadow of a coal tip. Now, I've been really pleased to hear about the communications that have been going out to owners, to occupiers, along with the online and in-person community engagement that's there to reassure people. I understand that's been happening in my region, in areas including Merthyr, Caerphilly, Blaenau Gwent and Torfaen. And we have to understand, of course, why people are concerned, because it's already come up. You mentioned yourself, Minister, the Tylorstown landslip in 2020—that's why Plaid brought a debate in this Senedd, calling for the location of these tips to be released, and, again, I welcome the fact that that has happened. I also look forward towards the upcoming legislation. But in the meantime, what message, please, could you give to the people who live near these coal tips, people who will be concerned? What message of reassurance would you like to put across to those constituents of mine, and could you outline further, please, what support will be offered to them materially and psychologically? Because people from Merthyr and from Bedwas, actually, have contacted me, over the past few years at different times, to mention their concerns. It would be really helpful, I think, that, as well as this online communication, a clear message could be repeated from you, to reassure people about the situation.

Now, finally, because I'm aware of time, I've mentioned already the matter of reclamation costs. Now, I'd appreciate if you could give us a further update, Minister, about any conversations you've had with the Secretary of State for Wales about making these tips safe. I'd like to emphasise my disappointment that the Secretary of State for Wales decided not to add his name to your Government's recent letter, as had been agreed and recorded at the coal tip summit. Now, what message does that send? That's not just a rhetorical question, Minister; I'd really welcome your thoughts. So, just to close, I would welcome finding out what will happen after the £44.4 million for clean-up costs—once that has dried up—what plan is there for the future. Could you reassure us, please, that even though there are significant pressures on budgets for the Welsh Government, this will continue to be a priority for your Government, please? Thank you.

Diolch, Delyth. Yes, absolutely. So, there's been an ongoing discussion. The Secretary of State for Wales has co-chaired the coal tip safety summit for some considerable time. I've attended I think all of them, but certainly the majority of them, and it's been a joint effort, quite rightly. Our view is pretty straightforward, really. We have two asks: we would like an additional £20 million for the inspection and maintenance regime, and I hope to speak to the Secretary of State for Wales in the very immediate future about his assistance in getting that money devolved to Wales from the Treasury, for the specific regime we're talking about here. But there's a much longer term issue about the remediation. So, to distinguish what we're talking about, the inspection and maintenance regime and then the remediation.

The remediation is enormous, and we couldn't pay for that out of our devolved budget, and, as you rightly said, Delyth, this is a heritage of the United Kingdom's fossil-fuel past. It's something that well predates devolution. It's something that the UK Government really ought to take responsibility for, or at least shared responsibility for, and the First Minister's continued to make that point, as have I, as has my colleague Rebecca Evans. We continue to make the point that it's nonsensical to say that an industry that had a far greater presence here in Wales that benefited the whole of the UK—and you could easily argue benefited parts of south-east England far more than it benefited people here in Wales—would then be paid for by the devolved Government. I mean, that just doesn't make any sense at all. So, that's a continuation of that conversation, but we do have an immediate ask for the inspection and maintenance phase of it. So, I just wanted to make that distinction.

In terms of the ongoing programme, you'll all be aware that we committed, in our programme for government, to introduce legislation during this Senedd term to deal with the legacy of centuries of mining and ensure coal tip safety. So, the disused tips Bill is scheduled for introduction to the Senedd next year. That seeks to enshrine in legislation the long-term, sustainable, fit-for-purpose regulatory regime, building on the one we've got now with the Coal Authority. And it will create, we hope, when the Senedd, we hope, approves it, a public body whose sole focus will be on this work. As part of the finance and regulatory impact assessment for that Bill, we will of course put the finance in place, and the Senedd will be able to scrutinise the veracity of that, and you'll be able to poke to make sure that we've got the right amount of money put in place for that. So, this is, if you like, the funding between now and when the Bill becomes law, and then once it's law, we'll be able to do the funding through the supervisory authority. So, I suppose that's a long-winded way of saying, 'Yes, absolutely, we will continue to fund it', but we'll continue to fund it in that statutory way so that it's protected for future generations. So, I'm very pleased to do that.

And then, in terms of the comms, it is really important, as you said, rightly, Delyth, to just clarify what we've done here. So, what we've done here is we've quality assured data that was already in the public domain but we knew was not quality assured. So, it was very misleading in parts, and what we've done is we've gone through that with a fine-toothed comb with the Coal Authority and with the local authorities impacted to make sure that we are much, much more confident that this is accurate. So, when we're now telling people that it's part of their curtilage, we're much, much surer that that's correct. That's not to say that there might not be somebody who finds that we've made a small error, but we're much happier that that's what it is.

And then just to emphasise that they're higher-risk tips because of their size and/or proximity to residential arrangements or towns or vital infrastructure, not because they're at higher risk of having something happen to them. I think it's just so important to get that across. So, they're higher risk as in, if something happened, it would have a big impact, but the 'if' is a remote 'if', because we've put the inspection and maintenance regimes in place to minimise the 'if'. And then, where something does happen, like with Tylorstown tip, we've clarified who's responsible for that, what the reaction should be and to make sure that everybody works together, and the forthcoming Bill will clarify that even more.

So, I don't think anyone needs to worry about this. This should, if anything, provide reassurance that we know where the tips are, we are inspecting them, there is a maintenance regime and we're trialling out a whole series of things that will keep people much safer than they had hitherto been.

Just to pick up from there, Minister, I think the most effective thing an elected Member could do is to interrogate the work of those people responsible for keeping tips safe. I've had meetings with Caerphilly County Borough Council, and I'm glad to say that—just cross-referencing your publication today with the list that Caerphilly council made publicly available—largely it is coterminous and recognises those tips. There is one tip that moves from category B to D1, where I will be asking the council about their inspection regime, but I have had a great deal of reassurance from Caerphilly council about their inspection regime, particularly with regard to Bedwas tips. I think the most helpful thing we can do is to keep an eye on that, not to go to specific tips and have photographs taken on the tips and published on social media. I think we need to be very careful about doing things like that. I think what we need to do is to make sure that the tips are being effectively monitored. 

The remediation cost for full remediation of just one tip in my constituency would be in the tens of millions, between £30 million and £40 million. Last week, the First Minister indicated that Welsh Government had no objection to private providers being involved in coal tip remediation and restoration, provided the proper planning process is being followed. I can give the Minister an example of where that's happened in Six Bells in Abertillery—a private company remediated at very, very low public cost. Can the Minister confirm that this is the case, and that the technical expertise that private providers may be able to offer can assist the Welsh Government and local authorities in delivering on their objectives, particularly where that public funding is hard to get hold of in the short term? 

Yes, diolch, Hefin. I absolutely agree with everything you've said there. In terms of the classification, this is a technical classification done by the engineers who have expertise in this matter, and what it effectively does is it determines how many inspections a year a particular tip has. So a C has one inspection a year and a D has two inspections a year. But, obviously, if there's some issue that's reported, then an inspection would immediately follow. So, this is the regular inspection regime, and then the maintenance programme comes out of that inspection regime and is implemented and supervised, and that's the case across Wales. If a tip has changed category, it's because an engineer has taken a view on that tip, and you're quite right to ask the local authority about that; they'll be the experts in how that categorisation has occurred. The Coal Authority quality assures that so everybody's happy, and then once the Bill, we hope, passes through the Senedd the supervisory authority will be able to do that. And obviously, they'll have expertise in order to do it.

As far as I'm concerned, we welcome remediation from any source as long as it's a remediation that meets the approval of the inspection and maintenance regime and carries out the remediation in a way that's suitable. The conversation you and I had about the one you've got in mind sounds excellent to me, and I'm sure it does fit those criteria. What we want is to make sure that the aftermath of any remediation suits the locality, protects any biodiversity that's there and works for the benefit of the people, and the scheme that you outlined to me, Hefin, sounded as if it did all of those things. Obviously, we welcome input from any source that’s able to get the best outcome for our communities.

Thank you, Minister, for today’s statement, but also the publication of the data. I also want to emphasise what you said—the ‘if’. But, obviously, we all—. When we saw the Tylorstown images, I’m sure a shiver went down all of our spines, and it was a reminder of the horrors of the past, but also the risk posed by the UK Government’s neglect. And I think we are right to condemn the UK Government, and I think it is irresponsible and we should all be angry that they’re playing politics over something that is so, so crucial that we get right.

The question I would like to ask is following on from Delyth Jewell’s point in terms of more extreme weather events; obviously, Tylorstown tip was an example of that. Even last night in the Valleys, you could see that people were panicking, concerned about not only flooding, but also the impact, potentially, on tips. So, when there are extreme weather events, which are becoming more frequent, can you give that commitment that it wouldn’t be twice a year that those tips that are most at risk or closest to populations would be inspected so that people can be reassured today that that information is there, but also it will be acted upon?

Yes, absolutely, Heledd; it's a very good point. So, what I'm talking about is the regular routine inspection and maintenance regime, not connected to any incident, just happening regular as clockwork, making sure that everything on the tip is as it should be, and the maintenance system is working as it should be, and nothing has happened that would need the engineer to change the maintenance regime and so on. We would expect that, as a result of those inspections, maintenance regimes would be adjusted. Of course, that’s the point of the inspection.

If there’s been a weather event or some other event that means that particular tips had a huge amount of deluge, to use the language, of rain over a short period of time and so on, then, yes, absolutely. Operatives from the local authority, NRW and the Coal Authority will confer together and make sure, because what they’ll want to do then is to make sure that the maintenance functioning on that tip—so, the pumping and the ponds and the rivers and all the rest of it that are part of the maintenance—has worked, and has taken the floodwater away in a way that’s safe.

The Tylorstown slide started this off. So, that’s what led us to where we are now. So, a very good thing, it seems to me, has come out of something that was very frightening at the time, and made a lot of people realise that we didn’t have some of the systems in place that we really should have.

Now, I absolutely think that this is a Westminster function. The idea that the devolved Government of Wales should pick up the legacy of hundreds and hundreds, in some cases thousands, of years of mining in Wales is just ridiculous. But we’ve tried to be very reasonable in what we’re asking. So, a £20 million contribution to the current inspection and maintenance regime would really help. It would really help us make sure that we’ve got everything in place now. And then a proper programme of remediation coming out of the supervisory authority—assuming the Senedd gives its permission for us to do that—which will be able to put those plans in place, and, as Hefin said, pull in private sector partners and all sorts of other partners, but which will absolutely need public sector funding, seed funding and leverage, is definitely the responsibility of the Westminster Government. Because, as I said earlier, it’s pretty clear where the benefit of all the mining went, and it didn’t go to most of us whose fathers were down the pits. So, it went into the mineral exchanges of the world, and some of the stately homes that we see around Wales. So, I really do think there’s both a moral and a financial duty incumbent on the Westminster Government. The First Minister has been very clear about that too.

Thank you, Minister, for your statement. As you know, this is a really important issue for communities such as those I represent in Cynon Valley, communities that grew and developed through the coal industry, bringing a heritage of which they're rightly proud, but also leaving a legacy with which we are still dealing. Of course, one strand of that legacy is the coal tips, and your statement marks a really important step forward in how we address this legacy. 

So, my questions today: Minister, an important point is that much of this information isn't new. As you said, tips are already being regularly inspected. I know that's the position taken by my local authority of RCT and your statement today about how the information is drawn together and approached within a cohesive, national framework. So, how is Welsh Government working to reassure communities on this point, and can you commit to holding a drop-in session in RCT as part of this? 

And my second question: RCT has the highest gross number of C and D tips in Wales, so it would arguably be unfair for the burden to fall solely on the council's budget. Now you mentioned the £44.4 million that Welsh Government has provided to local authorities to carry out safety works, and I'm aware that this funding comes to an end next year, and whilst I, like other speakers, appreciate the pressure on budgets and the fact that the UK Government has so far been silent on its own financial obligations, I would like to ask: what work is being done to scope out the breakdown of funding for future years?

Yes, thank you very much, Vikki. So, RCT have been very pivotal in this. It won't be any surprise to you at all. They have very high legacy issues to do with tips and the council has been very proactive and a great deal of the expertise that we've relied on has come from council officers. So, I'm very grateful indeed to the council for the co-operation we've had, and indeed, actually, every council in Wales, to the extent that they're involved in this, has been helpful. But RCT has very much been at the centre of that and I'm particularly grateful to the leader of RCT, who's been very proactive in bringing some of this forward. 

So, I think there are some important things to know here. So, this data isn't new, but it's much more—. It's been collated, it's easier to access and it's been quality assured. So, previously, you might have known that there is a tip nearby, but you would not have known the exact boundary, for example. There was a categorisation system in place, but it wasn't consistent across Wales. There were inspections in place, but they weren't consistent and regulated in that way.

So, it's not that we weren't doing anything. We absolutely were. Lots and lots of people were working very hard before the Tylorstown slip to do quite a lot of things. What that's done is make us bring it together and act in a much more concerted way across Wales to make sure that we have a proper regime in place and it's led us to bring forward the Bill that I know you're familiar with. 

So, we had a whole series of things that were non-standardised before. So, I suppose that's how I'd characterise it. So, if you're talking back to your constituents, what we've done is standardise the data. So, if they live near a tip in RCT the data they'll get will be very similar to that if they live near a tip in Wrexham, for example. So, that's very important, so people can understand what it is they're looking at. 

In the past, privately owned tips would be far less likely to have been assigned a category than publicly owned tips, and we have a very large and diverse ownership structure across Wales, with some tips in public ownership, some in wholly commercial ownership, some in private ownership and so on. So, they've all been categorised, so that's a very important point as well. We've got a very large number of these tips in Wales, as you rightly said. 

We are holding drop-in sessions; the vast majority of them are in the Valleys, Vikki. If you find that you have a substantial number of constituents who would have liked to have gone to an in-person event and couldn't get to one of the events in the Valleys, do let me know and I'm sure we can arrange one on purpose for a community that wants to do it together. And that goes for all Members of the Senedd, if they have that in their community. 

There are online events, there are drop-in events; I'm actually attending one in the early part of this. We want this information to get out to as many people as possible, and we want as many people as possible to be asking questions, so that they feel safe and secure and that this isn't something to worry about. 

And finally, Huw Irranca-Davies. 

Diolch, Dirprwy Lywydd. Minister, there's a brilliant archive piece of Richard Burton doing the rounds at the moment, in which he describes his love for the people of the south Wales Valleys as bordering on idolatry. And I think many of us in this Chamber will share that view of the people that we represent.

When I look at the maps—and it has been worth taking time to get into the granularity of where these tips actually are, particularly the category C and D—the roll-call of those tips within my area is a roll-call of our, what are termed, former coalfield areas, but are still where people lived with the danger and the dust and the pollution and the life-limiting impacts of coal. Wyndham, Pricetown, Ogmore Vale, Blaengarw, Cwm Garw, Cwmfelin, Maesteg, Garth, Nantyffyllon: these are the places where the C and D tips are. But that is why they deserve the respect, now, of knowing that they have a Welsh Government that is putting the effort into properly monitoring and managing particularly the C and D tips, and there is much to be reassured of within the statement today. But I'd echo the call of Vikki and others. I would welcome some community engagement within these communities because they definitely need that, they need to understand what is going on here. This is a way to manage and make safe these tips for them and for future generations.

But could I also echo those calls as well to the UK Government, to the Secretary of State of Wales to say, 'Play fair by us'? The money that was extracted from all of these communities—those places and communities that I listed—was money that did not stay in there. It went through Cardiff docks and it went off to London and other places around the world.

Huw, have you got a question to ask?

Diolch, Dirprwy Lywydd. Can she assure me that she is going to make those representations to the UK Government, in pure fairness, to say, both for the current scheme and for long-term maintenance, that they need to step up to the mark as well, and return some of that investment to the south Wales communities?

Diolch, Huw. I am very happy indeed to say that we continue to make those representations. A large number of Ministers in the Government make those representations to our opposite numbers very frequently, and the First Minister himself has made representations to that effect.

Just to finish off, Dirprwy Lywydd, I just want to reiterate the important parts of what we are announcing today, if you don't mind. We have been working with local authorities and other partner organisations to ensure that we have planned communications engagement right across Wales. We are very anxious that people are able to attend a drop-in session in person, or an online event. There are five drop-in sessions planned, and there are four online events planned. But if your constituents cannot get to those, then we are very happy to look again at whether we can hold another.

Technical briefing sessions have been held for all of you. If you could not get to that, or you’d like to re-run that, we are very happy to do that for you as well. They were done for Members of the Senedd, Members of Parliament and for all council leaders this morning.

The webpage content has frequently asked questions and a contacts page. We are asking people to send constituents to the website, much as you did during COVID, to get the information at source. Then, if you have a constituent who wants further information, then, obviously, write in in the normal way to us.

We want to avoid causing undue worry to partial owners of tips, in particular, where their property is on the site of a re-engineered tip, or where the toe of the tip may extend onto their land. This will be the first time that some owners are made aware of that, and the handling of that is crucial. This is about reassurance and engagement, and making sure that all people need to do is, if there’s a need to access their land for an inspection regime, that they are able to do so in good order and knowing that that will keep them safer. Diolch.

I thank the Minister.