Oral Answers to Questions
Harriet Cross Excerpts(2 weeks, 5 days ago)
Commons ChamberRead Full debate Read Hansard Text Watch Debate Read Debate Ministerial Extracts
Harriet Cross (Gordon and Buchan) (Con)
More than 38,000 people are employed on Welsh farms, the food and farming sector is worth £9 billion to the Welsh economy, and 90% of land is given over to farming, yet in 2025 alone, more than 400 farming businesses closed in Wales. Given the importance of farming to Wales, when did the Wales Office last make representations to the Cabinet about Welsh farmers, and what actions, not meetings, has the Minister personally taken to support farming in Wales?
Anna McMorrin
This Labour Government have presided over the largest devolution settlement since records began—a settlement that has been used to provide £337 million of support to farmers right across Wales. I wonder whether the hon. Lady remembers that not only did the Welsh Conservatives votes against that support, but they introduced a motion to scrap the Welsh Government’s sustainable farming scheme. I thought that the Welsh Conservative slogan was “farming needs a friend”, but that does not sound very friendly to me.
Draft Infrastructure (Wales) Act 2024 (Consequential Amendments) Order 2025
Harriet Cross Excerpts(3 months, 3 weeks ago)
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Harriet Cross (Gordon and Buchan) (Con)
As we have heard from the Secretary of State, the draft order will seemingly simplify the infrastructure consent processes in Wales for infrastructure projects, including those related to energy, electricity, transport, waste and water, by moving from the current multinational-level agencies process to an approvals process monitored and applied by the Welsh Government.
The explanatory notes to the Infrastructure (Wales) Bill published by the Welsh Government in June 2023 stated that it would ensure
“timely and effective delivery of major infrastructure and low carbon development in the right locations”.
Of course that is welcome, but it cannot and should not be at the expense of local and community voices and input. Any centralisation of planning processes and decisions must remain sympathetic to the needs and concerns of communities who will be most impacted by the new infrastructure, especially that of the scale and nature covered by the draft order. Any changes that are made —even those as relatively limited as those we are considering—must be to the benefit of the people, businesses and communities of Wales, and should not add a route to silence legitimate concerns.
Of course we want a simplified approach to infrastructure and planning that is business, community and, importantly, growth friendly and will help Wales catch up with the rest of the UK. However, given the scale of what needs to be achieved in Wales to make real, tangible change, we on the Opposition Benches are not convinced that these measures represent the change necessary to stimulate and truly accelerate Wales’s economy.
We will not oppose the draft order, but I would be grateful if the Secretary of State could address the following questions. Is there any scope for the Senedd or a future Welsh Government to propose changes to regulations that would make Wales unaligned with the rest of the UK, causing complications? Are the Government confident that the relevant agencies in Wales have the capacity to deal with applications under these licences? What projects does the Secretary of State feel will be most impacted, or benefit most, from these changes in the next five years? Does she see the draft order as a gateway for further devolution? Has she assessed whether the legislation might make consent easier to obtain in Wales than in other devolved nations, and the knock-on effect that could have on projects in other parts of the United Kingdom? What cross-Government work is being done on that?