Deputy First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for Climate
Change and Rural Affairs, : I would like to update Members on
progress with the design of the Sustainable Farming Scheme
through working in partnership with stakeholders.
During the summer recess, officials and I have been working with
the Ministerial roundtable, the Carbon Sequestration Panel and
through the Official's Group to review the design of the Scheme.
The groups have met a total of 19 times to date within a short
space of time. The groups' focus so far has been on actively
reviewing all of the Universal Actions and key Scheme Rules,
taking into account feedback received from the latest
consultation. The Carbon Sequestration Panel is exploring
evidence on additional and alternative Actions to sequester
carbon as part of the Universal Layer and will be reporting their
findings to the Ministerial Roundtable.
This work is founded on the structure for the Scheme as was set
out in the consultation. This structure should support the
resilience of all farmers in Wales through an integrated whole
farm approach and Universal Baseline Payment, based on the
completion of a set of Universal Actions. Those wishing to
progress further with additional economic, environmental and
social actions will have an opportunity to do so by choosing
extra Optional and Collaborative Actions (and receive additional
financial support). Once the Universal Actions and Scheme Rules
have been refined, we will undertake further modelling work and a
revised Integrated Impact Assessment, before Ministers make any
final decisions next year.
The Groups will continue to support the process including the
development of other elements such as the payment methodology,
Optional and Collaborative Actions, and the controls framework.
With the support of the Roundtable, we have already published the
response to the consultation and the revised position on payment
for Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) areas within the
Universal Baseline Payment. The development of the SSSI proposal
is a good example of how we are working effectively as a group to
develop a revised position.
I do not plan to give a running commentary on the progress of the
work, but I expect to return to the Senedd later this year with a
more detailed update. I would like to thank all stakeholders for
their time in contributing to the process over the Summer, and
into the coming months.
