National Assembly for Wales

I am currently planning to attend the Wales v USA game on 21st November. I will be accompanied by two officials.

I met with the First Minister of Scotland on 27 September to discuss a number of matters, including the UK Covid Inquiry.

The Welsh Government worked closely with Bridgend Council on its early voting pilot. To ensure successful delivery of the pilot Welsh Government agreed to reimburse the council for any additional costs incurred. In total the council was reimbursed £65,243.49.

Other costs which were not specific to any single pilot, such as the changes needed for the electoral management software, were also paid for by the Welsh Government. These are set out in the Electoral Commission’s evaluation report.

I will attend the Wales v England game on 29th November and be accompanied by a member of my Private Office.  Consideration is being given as to whether a Welsh Government security officer may also be required.

Three Welsh Government officials will also be travelling to Qatar at the start of the tournament to engage with partners in support of the Welsh Government’s programme of activities.    

Welsh Government has spent £30,238.98 on legal fees connected to the purchase of Gilestone Farm. Blake Morgan LLP were appointed to provide legal advice to Welsh Government on this matter.

Welsh Government has spent £30,238.98 on legal fees connected to the purchase of Gilestone Farm. Blake Morgan LLP were appointed to provide legal advice to Welsh Government on this matter.

I have not met the Managing Director of Green Man.

Working within the Covid-19 restrictions, I have undertaken close to 50 visits in North Wales in my capacity as Minister for North Wales. 

I have visited settings across the region, including social care and childcare settings, small and large businesses, flood and renewable energy schemes, growth deal projects, housing developments, cost of living projects including food banks and food poverty schemes, hospitality businesses, tourism and heritage sites, cultural centres, country parks and innovative and sustainable farming schemes.

I have further North Wales visits planned in November and December to supported housing schemes, growth deal projects, town centre developments, farms, indigenous businesses and visits linked to the cost-of-living crisis.

The scope of the 2015 review was to provide the Welsh Government with an impartial literature review and an analysis of the science available on the use of electronic collars that provide a static impulse or shock. The review considered the potential benefits and efficacy of electric collars against animal welfare concerns in order to reach conclusions about whether the benefits outweighed the animal welfare costs.

We are working with the UK Government on introducing further safeguards through the Animal Welfare (Kept Animals) Bill. The Bill proposes to repeal and replace the Dogs (Protection of Livestock) Act 1953 with a new set of provisions to address the issue of dogs attacking or worrying livestock. It aims to broaden the definition of livestock which are afforded protection and the areas in which the powers apply. As currently drafted, it also incorporates a range of ancillary orders that the Courts may make to provide effective tools to address reoffending in the most serious cases of livestock worrying.

The scope of the 2015 review was to provide the Welsh Government with an impartial literature review and an analysis of the science available on the use of electronic collars that provide a static impulse or shock. The review considered the potential benefits and efficacy of electric collars against animal welfare concerns in order to reach conclusions about whether the benefits outweighed the animal welfare costs.

It is not possible to know how many destruction orders for dogs which attack livestock may be issued in Wales should the Animal Welfare (Kept Animals) Bill come into effect. As currently drafted, this is just one of a range of ancillary orders the Courts may make to provide effective tools to address reoffending in the most serious cases of livestock worrying.

My response to your previous written question has answered this.  

I also published a written statement in September with the latest update for the review.

The Welsh Government does not directly collect data on methane emissions. However, the National Atmospheric Emission Inventory is published annually and contains details on estimated methane emissions in Wales by sector and is used to track and monitor our emissions.

On the excel you can find two tabs for Wales:

• End-user emissions - these calculations allocate emissions from the production and processing of fuels (including the production electricity) to the consumers of these fuels to reflect the total emissions relating to that fuel use. This is in contrast to:
• 'By source' emissions - reporting which emissions are attributed to the sector that emits them directly.

You may want to focus on ‘by-source’ if you are interested in the methane emissions a sector is responsible for emitting. To extract the methane data, you will need to adjust the pivot table options. When the pivot table is selected there is a menu option at the top of excel for “PivotTable Analyse”. Once selected, on the far right select “Field List”. From the new window that opens you can drag and drop the “pollutant” tix box into the filters list below. A new drop-down list will appear at the top of the data table from which you can then select methane (CH₄) emissions. The table is now converted to show the quantity (KtCO₂ equivalent) of methane emissions for each sector.

Because you are particularly interested in methane emissions, bear in mind that in this publication, emissions estimates are primarily based on 100-year AR4 (IPCC 4^th Assessment Report) Global Warming Potential (GWP), consistent with international reporting and carbon trading protocols up to 2020. However, in November 2021 it was agreed by the international community at COP26 that greenhouse gas emissions shall be reported under the Paris Agreement transparency framework using 100-year AR5 (IPCC 5^th Assessment Report) GWP. Therefore, an additional tab is provided in the spreadsheet to show the AR5 emissions (Wales by Source AR5).

Substantive response