I welcome the Cabinet Secretary’s statement and his clear commitment to taking forward and building on the pioneering made-in-Wales legislation that was brought forward by his predecessors Lesley Griffiths and Leighton Andrews. The detailed plans laid out in the statement show there’s a real commitment to take forward and turn bold legislation into bold implementation that will make a real difference in our communities and to the lives of many people who are exposed to domestic violence.

I want to explore with the Minister how this interacts with other England-and-Wales legislation brought forward in the UK Parliament, not least the recent offence under the Serious Crime Act 2015, England and Wales, of coercive and controlling behaviour. It was very welcome because it acknowledged, in hard black and white, the frequency and the destructiveness of this form of often hidden and often harder-to-identify abuse. As Professor Evan Stark of Rutgers university and long-time campaigner on this issue has said:

‘Not only is coercive control the most common context in which women are abused, it is also the most dangerous.’

I the past, the law has seemed inadequate when police officers are called to incidents of domestic abuse, not least because, too often, only a physical act causing actual injury or criminal damage would result in an arrest. The offence of coercive behaviour, this new offence, allows enforcement agencies to identify and to act on a pattern of abusive behaviour where victims are subject to controlling, disempowering behaviour and emotional abuse and to do this before it progresses to actual physical violence. But, this will need a new skill set, both for police officers and other agencies to identify this behaviour and to gather the evidence needed for prosecution and conviction. So, would the Cabinet Secretary ensure, in light of the welcome national training framework, the Ask Me pilot, and so much good work that is now happening on a multi-agency basis, that we can promote the successful use of these new powers on coercive and controlling behaviour and add to the work of those like south Wales police commissioner Alun Michael, who I understand the Cabinet Secretary met with very recently, who is working with partners on the ground in seminars, in workshops and elsewhere to develop awareness of these new powers and understanding of how to use these new powers and to put them into action?