Supplementary Memorandum by the Welsh Assembly Government Minister for Environment, Planning and Countryside - July 2003
Introduction

1. I have pleasure in submitting further written evidence on the specific issues raised in the Commission's letter of 23 May 2003. This supplements the formal written evidence submitted by my predecessor last November.
TRANSFER OF ANIMAL HEALTH AND WELFARE POWERS

2. Following an inter-Group scoping study within the Assembly Government, conducted in co-operation with the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), the following animal health and welfare powers have provisionally been identified for transfer:

Functions in Primary Legislation
(including all functions in secondary legislation made under each Act listed)

• Animal Health Act 1981 (as amended and extended by Animal Health Act 2002)

• Slaughterhouses Act 1974

• Bees Act 1980

• Pig Industry Levy Act 1983

Functions in Secondary Leg islation

• Welfare of Farmed Animals (Slaughter and Killing) Regulations 1995

• The Products of Animal Origin (import and Export) Regulations 1996

• The TSE (Wales) Regulations 2002
3. Primary legislative powers will remain the prerogative of the UK Parliament.

4. The proposed transfer of powers project makes no provision for the transfer of programme budgets. These will remain unified at the GB level in recognition of Great Britain as a single epidemiological area for the purposes of animal disease and welfare as well as the UK's formal position as the Member State of the EU. Discussions are on-going regarding the transfer of running costs but the scope is necessarily limited given the very small and dispersed nature of the functions relative to those held by Defra.

5. The transfer of powers is currently on schedule for a planned effective date of April 2004. A Project Board has been set up and is taking forward the transfer and its resource issues. Recruitment and accommodation programmes have been drawn up and are ready to begin (the recruitment of a Veterinary Policy Unit, being set up in order to provide independent veterinary advice to Welsh Ministers, has already started). In parallel, work is continuing on the case to be put to the Committee for the Nations and Regions (CNR) as the prelude for the Order-making activity later in the year. Legislating for the transfer depends on the outcome of consideration by the CNR.
6. It is relevant and important to recognise that Great Britain remains a single epidemiological area. In order to ensure continuing effective working relations and consistency between the different administrations, as well as maintaining the integrity of Great Britain as a single epidemiological area, a State Veterinary Service Management Board, on which the Assembly Government is represented, has been established. A GB-wide Animal Health and Welfare Strategy has also been developed.
COMMON LAND LEGISLATION
7. In February 2000 a Consultation Paper was issued in England and Wales in respect of, among other things, the agricultural management of common land. The responses were analysed and in July 2002 the Government issued its conclusions in the form of the Common Land Policy Statement; it can be viewed at:   http://www.defra.gov.uk/wildlifecountryside/issues/commonlleaislation/clps.pdf.
8. The Statement provided for the setting up of a Stakeholder Working Group (SWG) to make recommendations on the agricultural management of common land. The Working Group was convened last November, and issued its report in April 2003. The report may be viewed at www defra aov uk/wildlife-countryside/issues/common/legislation/swareportapr03.pdf.
9. The intention is to carry out a consultation exercise in England and Wales by the end of September at the latest on the Government's proposals, formulated after having taken into account the SWG's recommendations, -for the agricultural management of common land. Whatever conclusions are reached following that consultation exercise, primary legislation will be required to achieve reforms to the law relating to common land. The ability to take this forward will clearly depend upon the availability of Parliamentary time. As with all new demands on Parliamentary time, however, there can be no guarantee that any legislation which may be needed as a result of this exercise could be accommodated within the Parliamentary timetable.
10. It is not correct to say that the legislative process is well advanced. The formulation of policy and proposals is well advanced but it will not be until the further consultation exercise has been completed that the work on preparing legislation can begin.
11. The argument that legislation is likely to be a higher priority for the Welsh Assembly Government than the UK Government because of the higher proportion of common land in Wales does not really hold water. It is true that the Welsh agriculture strategy "Farming for the Future: a new direction for farming in Wales" identifies this as a key action. However, the problems identified by the original consultation exercise affect England and Wales and it should be noted that it is Defra that has taken, and continues to take, the lead on the issue of improving the management, etc of common land. Furthermore, the UK Government and Welsh Assembly Government have made clear, and publicly, the intention to bring forward legislation to address a wide range of common land issues. The Assembly Government had intended to bring forward primary legislation in the current Parliamentary Session to deal with issues relating to agricultural management and over-grazing on Commons in Wales. The bid for legislation was withdrawn in the light of Defra's commitment to seek legislative time because of the obvious advantage of dealing with our concerns in a more comprehensive approach put forward by Defra.
12. It is not possible to indicate, at this stage, how many clauses are likely to be in any new bill nor how complex it would be. What must be borne in mind, however, is that any proposed legislation would have to replace complex legislation accumulated over many hundreds of years. There is every likelihood, therefore, that the proposed legislation would be quite complex itself.
13. In view of the range of issues to be covered, the fact that those issues affect both England and Wales and Defra's commitment to bid for a legislative opportunity in 2004-2005, it is considered inappropriate to seek Wales-only legislation to deal with these issues.
INSHORE FISHERIES POWERS
14. There are two tiers of fisheries management within inshore waters around Wales. The first tier, which covers the 0-12 miles sea area is covered by EU, UK and Welsh Assembly legislation and implemented by Defra's Sea Fisheries Inspectors acting on behalf of the Welsh Assembly Government. The second tier, covers the 0-6 mile, and is covered additionally by Sea Fisheries Committees (SFCs) legislation in the form of local byelaws. Sea Fisheries Committees (SFCs) are committees of local government and it is the Committees' officers that enforce the byelaws independently of the Assembly Government. SFCs decide what additional measures are required to conserve fisheries in their areas, but their byelaws, after public consultation, have to be considered and as appropriate confirmed by the Assembly Government.
15. The starting point for any long- term strategy for sustainable sea fishing in the UK is the EU's Common Fisheries Policy. The Policy has recently been reviewed and the Assembly Government, along with the other UK Fisheries Departments, is currently assessing the impact that proposed changes will have on the UK industry. That assessment is being led, at the behest of the Prime Minister, by a Cabinet Office Strategy Group, which is due to report its findings by the end of the year. However, early evidence from this initiative and existing evidence from work undertaken by the WDA in preparing a commercial fisheries strategy for Wales, which was published earlier this year, makes clear the importance of inshore fisheries in the 0-6 mile zone. This is particularly true in Wales where inshore under 10 meters vessels, fishing mainly for shellfish, make up the bulk of the Welsh fleet.
16. If these inshore fisheries are to remain viable then effective management is essential. As indicated above the main management tool for these inshore fisheries are SFC byelaws. Membership of an SFC is voluntary and the decision whether or not to be in membership, or the amount of funds which are allocated to an SFC by each constituent member council, has more to do with that councils competing financial priorities than the needs of the local fisheries. An indication of the problem is the inordinate difficulties faced by the Assembly Government, over the last five years, in resolving a financial package between member councils of one of the two Welsh SFCs. To add to the SFCs problems, the powers, which underpin SFC management bylaws, are outdated and restrict the options for appropriate management regimes. The result is that important fisheries are not to be afforded the management that they require if they are to be sustainably maintained.
17. The remedies to these problems are generally straightforward but they can only be achieved by amending the Sea Fisheries Regulation Act 1966. Despite regular requests over many years by the Assembly Government and by Defra for amendments to be made to the Act, our attempts have been thwarted by a lack of parliamentary time. If the Assembly Government had those powers, not only could it address the short term problems currently being faced by SFCs, but it could also carry out a radical review of Welsh inshore fisheries to ensure that we have the best management regime in place for these very important Welsh fisheries.