Julie James: We're very aware that benefit changes are causing some difficulties in some of the refuges in Wales, and we've been working very closely with providers to make sure that we can understand exactly what the issues are. We have provided £5.4 million in 2017-18 in the violence against women, domestic abuse and sexual violence services grant to local authorities and to third sector organisations...
Julie James: Yes, we continue to implement our national strategy that sets out our action to protect and support victims and survivors of domestic abuse. We will publish draft commissioning guidance shortly that will support a more collaborative regional approach to providing services.
Julie James: What we're trying to do is we're trying to test the market to see—. This is always a balance between numbers and getting to communities that have a specific recorded need. I've said this a number of times before: it's a real balance for us to know whether we should just get past as many premises as possible, regardless of whether those people have contacted us to say that they want it, or...
Julie James: I'm not too sure what the specific issue there is, but I'm more than happy to have a good look to see what it is. We are aware that there are some fibre-to-the-premises connection problems in Anglesey and some parts of the north-west of Wales. It may be that you're caught in one of those, but I'm afraid I don't have that information to hand, so I'm very happy to, perhaps, exchange...
Julie James: We have 32,081 premises that have been provided with access to fast broadband on Anglesey under the Superfast Cymru project, which equates to 91 per cent of eligible premises.
Julie James: Yes, I'm very happy to say that we're considering all forms of availability for broadband. The programme has never been technology reliant. In fact, we let the programme to BT and they used their two big technologies for it. But we've always, through the ABC programme around the ultrafast programme, supported all technologies in Wales of whatever sort, as long as it gets the speed to above...
Julie James: Certainly. Under the Superfast Cymru project, we have provided access to fast-fibre broadband to 17,767 premises across all parts of Monmouthshire, equating to just over 76.2 per cent completion, and they have an average download speed of 83.84 Mbps.
Julie James: Yes indeed, we're very proud of the This is Me campaign, which I launched in Gower College a few weeks ago now. It's been widely taken up on social media, and, as the Member will know, it's based very much on promoting what the research shows us, which is that increased gender equality and transgender equality decreases violence as people are able to just express themselves as they wish to...
Julie James: We continue to work closely with our partners on the hate crime criminal justice board, including the police and Crown Prosecution Service, to tackle homophobic hate crime. We also provide funding to Victim Support Cymru and Stonewall Cymru, through our equality and inclusion programme, which supports work in this area.
Julie James: Yes, we've just increased the amount of money that we currently spend on advertising the availability of broadband. We've just procured an advertising agency to go out on a two-county basis at a time—a rolling programme of advertising the availability of superfast in order to increase take-up. I will say, though, that this is an enormous cultural change. We've all forgotten how fast...
Julie James: Indeed, and his officials attend my ministerial data and digital group, which as I said, met only this morning. One of the topics of conversation was that we're putting in place a new transport data arrangement, as part of the way the officials work, to consider how we might best improve some of the connectivity issues. So, you will know that Arriva Trains Wales has just put Wi-Fi on all of...
Julie James: Certainly. Although not holding information specifically for Swansea East, under the Superfast Cymru project we have provided access to fast fibre broadband to 24,093 premises across all parts of Swansea, equating to just over 98 per cent completion. The average download speed across Swansea is currently 82.81 Mbps.
Julie James: There's a big issue with upload speeds depending on what kind of technology you use to connect it and they depend on a number of other factors. So, customers on a fibre-to-the-cabinet connection can expect download speeds of a maximum of about 80 Mbps and upload speeds of around 20 Mbps. But it's dependent on distance from the cabinet, the package the customer buys from their internet service...
Julie James: Yes, cyber security is a real live issue for us obviously and I very recently met with Ciaran Martin, the chief executive of the National Cyber Security Centre, and my officials maintain a good working relationship with his organisation. We're very pleased that the NCSC has just announced a dedicated devolved administrations relationships manager to work with us in Wales. Our officials held a...
Julie James: Well, we've had extensive conversations with the UK Government about this, particularly in light of the Digital Economy Act 2017. They've gone for a 10 Mbps universal service obligation; however, it's not yet at all clear what 'universal' means in this context. It's unlikely to mean 100 per cent as that's not likely to be within the budget associated with the Act. We think 10 Mbps isn't...
Julie James: Yes. We've spent a lot of money, as Members across the Chamber will have heard me say on a number of occasions, on extending superfast broadband right through Wales, and that has a number of effects, not least allowing telemedicine and so on to take effect, so that we take better care of our population as a whole, and specifically those who have any kind of mobility or distance issues....
Julie James: Well, I think there's a possibility of that, but as I said, at the moment, the UK Government's plans to reform human rights are on hold—which I'm delighted to hear them say—until the UK's withdrawal from the EU is finalised. This was confirmed in the Conservative 2017 general election manifesto, one of the only bits of it that I greeted with any enthusiasm. It says: 'We will not repeal...
Julie James: Absolutely. And that's very much part of the idea of the continuity Bill, to protect our ability as a devolved Government to protect the transfer of current EU regulation into Welsh law, and to keep it embedded therein. And, actually, just to continue our cultural tradition of being extremely proud of being a culture in Wales that protects human rights and actually welcomes people from...
Julie James: Thank you for that very important question actually. We've made it very plain that we're utterly opposed to the repeal of the Human Rights Act 1998, and all that that entails, and we're utterly opposed to any withdrawal from the European convention on human rights. We're also opposed to any lessening of human rights protections in the context of the UK's withdrawal from the EU. It's...
Julie James: Well, of course, mobile services are not devolved, so it's—. We don't have some of the levers that I would very much like to have in order to move some of these things forward.
