I certainly associate myself, as I echoed in my opening remarks, with that deep sense of thanks to everybody that was involved in the response through what was a very difficult summer that was challenging in a host of different ways.
The health impact, obviously, is one that was very much considered. How do you make sure that we are, in future, able to prepare for the impact of a greater number, potentially, of fires on health? These are the questions that we must always be engaged with.
On the recall of the Senedd over the summer, it was a perfectly fair request to be made. In the same way, the UK Labour Government didn't recall the UK Parliament, despite the pressures there. What happened there was that COBRA was called. I attended that COBRA meeting. We convened our Wales civil emergencies committee, because that is how we make sure that we take action, because that is the key element.
The Member says that she appreciated having that briefing from Government. We were very happy to provide information. We published a number of written statements, and that scrutiny capability is there throughout that time. It's always about sharing information and communicating. Coming from a communication background, I will always say that we look at how we improve communicating with people. It's something that we should always be eager to do, and it is one of the lessons. When you have more and more events of this kind, the communication challenge becomes more difficult too, just as fighting the fires themselves become difficult.
On the relationship with the unions, as I said, it was good that it was from the FBU themselves that that request came for the summit. It's something that I had discussed with my colleagues in Government a day or two previously, so we were able to call that summit directly in response to that request from the FBU, because it was clear that we were all thinking in the same kind of way. That will have a broad-ranging purpose—to understand the climate change challenge, to recognise the nature of the changing risks that we will face, and look at all those elements, including resource and capability within the fire and rescue services, absolutely, plus those elements of land management that will be so important moving forward.
We know that this summer is unlikely to be a one-off. This summer was a very loud alarm call for us all in how we respond to that. We can't wait for another summer of 2026, which is why we're moving quickly ahead with the kind of assessments that are taking place within the fire and rescue services themselves, the interaction with Government there. Meetings took place all summer between those partners—Natural Resources Wales, Welsh Government, the fire and rescue services. This was a multi-agency approach throughout, and that will be the guiding principle now. There's no one answer here. All of us have to come together to make sure that we are better equipped to deal with emergencies and try to mitigate the risks themselves in future.
Contributions
675 contributions on record. Newest first, by sitting day. Page 10 of 19. Counted by Siambr
· part 2 of 2
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Thank you for that series of really constructive questions, I think. Yes, our thanks to the emergency services made again very, very clearly, and I hope they genuinely do hear that, because I know there were some very exhausted women and men out there through the summer who were doing their best.
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I agree on not having identified this enough as a risk. One of the elements of the work that I have engaged with very, very positively since coming into this role is the resilience work. I've tried to make sure that I am kept very, very well briefed on the broad range of resilience engagement that Welsh Government either leads or is a part of. I chair the Wales resilience forum, which brings together the whole raft of organisations that are involved in this thing called resilience, making sure that we are fit to face the challenges of the future, from health boards to policing to the military to all, you know, fire and rescue. It's something that I take very, very seriously indeed. And absolutely, our register of risks is updated regularly, and there will be, clearly, a reflection on the scale of the risk that we face through fire, and that is only right. On military assistance, MACA—military aid to the civil authorities—and the rules, I'm happy to write to you, to share with you details of how it works. But, essentially, the call isn't made by Welsh Government, it is made, as I was explaining earlier, by those who are responsible for the response on the ground. The call was made, in this case, on 13 August, and it was agreed to. So, that the systems work is the key element, and the systems worked in a way that led to very rapid deployment, which was very, very important. But on those rules on engagement, we'll share as much information with you as we can. And the military, of course, is very much a part of, as I say, the Wales resilience forum. On air support, we see the pictures, don't we, of planes on the continent dumping fire-retardant material or water on fires, and we can all be guilty of jumping to a conclusion that that must be the best way of fighting fires. I've learnt a lot as First Minister, in my engagement, working closely with the operations over the summer, that, actually, it's not always the best answer, that, often, it is containing, putting those breaks in place, letting a fire burn itself out and so on. But there is a place for developing and looking at how we make sure that we have more capability in future for air support. It is something that I raised specifically during the COBRA meeting on 12 August, and something that I understand will be looked at: what role can UK Government play in providing resource that is available for use across the UK? But we've at least been able to raise that issue. Also, the fire and rescue services are already developing a proposal to have some sort of framework in place for rapid access to civilian firefighting helicopters, which doesn't make any more such support available, but it does simplify, potentially, the process of contracting for aerial support. They don't need Welsh Government's permission to do this, by the way, but they would have our full support in doing so. So, we learn. It's an important part of it; it's not perhaps the silver bullet that some people think it is. On physical elements on mitigating risks, yes, land management is clearly a potential part of that. It will be a part of the mix when it comes to that forum on 22 October. Livestock numbers absolutely can play a part in those discussions. I still say that any changes introduced in practices, driven at times by various Government policies, I am convinced have been driven by the right reasons—the right motives and motivations have been there. It's just that the context changes, and we need to make sure that we aren't creating unnecessary risks for ourselves, whilst, at the same time, being really determined to play our part in terms of the climate and nature emergency. On the request for funds for small reservoirs, it's not something that I've had specific discussions about, but I know we are looking at how support can be provided for agriculture in light of what they have experienced this summer. I'll end on the alert. I was in a restaurant at the time, when the alarm went off. It was frightening for many, I know, and the bilingual aspect did, without doubt, cause anxiety. This wasn't a Welsh Government issue. This was a UK Government issue. The question asked was: what engagement will we have? 'We will help', is the answer to that. It's important that the message gets through to people. But as I was saying earlier, bilingualism is not the problem, it's how we make sure that we have the outcome that we seek, which is to give people a warning of an impending risk, and that we also consider the fact that we're a bilingual country. We're very good at doing things bilingually here in Wales. We have expertise in making sure that we are able to support UK Government in reflecting on what happened with that emergency alert this summer.
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Diolch yn fawr iawn. The Member speaks of her experience in her community. Thanks to all Senedd Members of all parties who responded to concerns in their own communities. We are there. We are able to share information and provide support in all sorts of different ways. Climate change—yes, absolutely, we are seeing the impacts of climate change here now. Who will be part of that response? It will be as many people as we possibly can get. There is a physical table for that summit, and we'll get as many people around it as possible, but there's also a metaphorical table, isn't there? And around that, absolutely, communities the length and breadth of Wales will need to be heard, their concerns heard, as we move forward to facing up to the risks in the future. In terms of landowners, farmers—absolutely, they will be there.
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Thank you very much for that. The Member makes the case that this isn't something that we can now view as something happening over there, you know, in another part of the world. And we all watched in—. It was frightening seeing what was happening in Bordeaux, and France and other parts of Europe. This was happening here in Wales as well, and it does frighten. The key thing is that we do learn. That is what we're trying to do here. The summit is a very prominent part of that learning. But, as I've tried to explain, that learning is happening right across Government. We absolutely will be reporting back on what the steps are that will come out of that summit and different measures, so that we can be held to account over it. People need to know that we don't go into summer 2027 in the same way as we did in summer 2026. But there's also a longer term element to this too. When we look at tackling climate change and some of the longer term changes that we need to put in place, we will try to be as open as we can about the responses that we and our partners think are necessary as a result of our experience.
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Diolch yn fawr iawn, and I'm glad you recognise that by me making the statement that we hold this at the very highest level of importance in Government. I can assure you that I was very much at the heart of the Government response alongside other Ministers over what was a very, very difficult summer indeed. I am happy to—. Obviously, the work we're doing now is putting together that list of individuals and organisations that will be represented around that physical table. We want it to be comprehensive. This is about multi-agency working. We need to make sure that the partners who have knowledge across the whole breadth of areas that are relevant to this field will be there. I will share that information as much as I can. There has to be a sense that this is a project for us as a nation now. When we look at issues of national resilience, they genuinely do matter to all of us. And where there are ideas and suggestions put forward by people who, for whatever reason, aren't around that table, we will absolutely take them seriously as we put together a plan now to respond to what the Member and I recognise as being the threat of our generation, which is the threat of climate change.
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'Absolutely' is the short answer. I forget the name of the summit—it was held in London last week—where representatives of 70 nations were there specifically looking at wildfires and how Governments and the public services and fire and rescue services should be responding. So, yes, very much a part of an international response to what is an ever more emerging threat. Where there are members of the Welsh diaspora who have specific reason to help us with their knowledge, please, Welsh Government is always interested in hearing from them.
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Thank you very much for those questions. The Member is right: we thank the whole team in fire and rescue, and it is those behind the scenes, those control staff and support teams. He's also right in pointing to the cumulative nature of the threat that we faced this summer being perhaps the biggest issue. Don't get me wrong, some of the fires individually were very, very serious and caused a significant challenge for the fire and rescue services, but it was at that point—and I think it was 14 that was the highest number at one point—it was the sheer stress of that on not just our capability to fight those fires, but our resilience to deal with other potential emergencies that was genuinely stretched. I don't think I can give an assurance to publish that plan by 31 October, not least in that we have a programme for assessing capability needs, resources, the threats, through a summit that is being held on 22 October. So, we're trying to move as quickly as we can here, making sure we have the right people, taking the right attitude to finding the solutions that we need, but I can give an assurance that we will work as quickly as we can to provide a guide to what will be different in the future. You're right that there are issues with costs related to the stresses this summer, and Welsh Government has made the decision that fire services and local authorities will be able to apply for funding under our emergency financial assistance scheme because of the specific pressures that were placed upon them this summer because of the wildfires.
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Thank you very much for the question. The Minister will have heard the question too. There are a whole host of considerations that we will need to look at when it comes to our resilience, and water supply, absolutely, is one of those. The water supply companies were very much a part of the joined-up response during the course of this summer, assessing their needs for firefighting, their needs for making sure that those pressures didn't impact on drinking water supplies and so on. But, yes, we will need to make sure that, if there were problems that came to light during this summer, everything possible is done to make sure that we are mitigating or minimising those risks as we face a situation where the risks will only get higher.
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Thank you. It's a really important point, because everybody needs to be a part of the solution, but neither can they literally be a part of a summit. And whilst I clearly can't say that there will be representatives of every community affected at one summit on 22 October 2026, what we need to make sure is that their interests are served at that summit and that we have means always of making sure that they are able to feed into the decision-making process that we have. Now, it strikes me that there are things that we can do as a Parliament that help people make their voice heard. As Members, we are all voices for the people that we represent. I will give some thought about how, actually, that happens from a Welsh Government point of view, but the crucial thing for us is that their interests are served at that table, and that—. I was in Blaenavon; I visited and I saw the fire for myself and it was devastating. I was speaking to those who had been grazing on the common and they were facing significant impacts on their livelihoods. In terms of the impact on farming and so on, I have indicated today that active consideration is being given to what assistance can be made available, and no doubt we'll hear from the rural resilience and sustainability Minister on that. But, yes, voices must be heard—and, in fact, I would argue that they already are, through the actions of all of us here. But, really, what people want to know is, 'What's the action going to be?' We will be very open about the results of that summit, plus the meetings that have taken place. Speaking with the Minister, it was an update on 8 September—I see it very much as setting up, then, the work of the summit, and it appears that there are elements already shaping up. So, it would have been about organisation, the physical environment, already being looked at by the fire and rescue services as part of their debriefs. That will be fed, then, into that national summit. This isn't going to be a one-off; this is going to be a process of making sure we're ready for the changing risks in the future.
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Thank you. I'm also deeply concerned about copycat arson attacks, potentially. Just speaking here with my Minister for culture who is willing to take this forward as a question with UK Ministers in a meeting soon, because we do need to be looking at these threats that are absolutely things that we have in common across the whole of the UK. One thing that I have learnt is that our fire and rescue services have, over a period of years, become very, very effective at communicating messages around safety, reducing the risk of fire in homes dramatically over the years. They have also been doing a lot of engagement work with young people, talking about the risks, the dangers of fire setting and so on. I'm eager to see that kind of work being promoted more, and no doubt that will be a part of the prevention agenda as we move forward. Because human behaviour is, as I said earlier, a big part of the threat that we are facing here. Again, on agriculture, we're very, very aware of the challenges that have been caused to agriculture by the fires this summer. I know that discussions have been going on involving the rural resilience Minister. We want to make sure, within the confines of financial constraints and so on, that we're able to help, either in practical terms or, where we can, in financial terms too. Those considerations are very active. We will report back when we're able to do so.
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Yes, I was very grateful to a number of the graziers on the land above Blaenavon for making time to speak with me. It was good that we were able to speak as Welsh Government, and with Senedd Members there too, about the stresses that had been placed on them. You could sense that there was a real tiredness after such a long period of the fire burning. I am really keenly aware of the impact of the wildfires on Welsh farming and those grazing on common land. Welsh Government is exploring opportunities to bring together those relevant stakeholders in the coming months, as well as the summit itself, to consider how the resilience and recovery, of our commons specifically, to such events, can be strengthened. And as I signified, we're looking at all elements of the kinds of assistance that might be made possible through Government action.
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