The following amendment has been selected: amendment 1 in the name of Paul Davies.

We move on to item 7, the debate on tackling hate crime, and to move the motion, the Cabinet Secretary—Carl Sargeant.

Motion NDM6113 Jane Hutt

To propose that the National Assembly for Wales:

1. Notes the progress made through the Welsh Government's Tackling Hate Crime Framework.

2. Recognises, in light of recent events, the continuing challenges posed by hate crime.

Motion moved.

Thank you, Presiding Officer. I welcome this opportunity to update Members on the progress made to date in Wales on tackling hate crime and the current challenges.

I remind Members that I published an annual update in 2016-17 and a delivery plan in July that highlights the cross-Government action.

I’d like to turn to the amendment at this point. I am happy for Members to note the all-Wales hate crime research project. This debate today will demonstrate how we have used the key recommendations from this report and other related research to raise awareness of hate crime, and increase the confidence of victims and witnesses to report hate crime. This is true, for example, in relation to restorative approaches for hate crime perpetrators. While criminal justice remains a non-devolved issue, Victim Support Cymru, who manage our hate crime report and support centre, are currently working with the Wales Community Rehabilitation Company to create a hate crime restorative justice and education programme for hate crime offenders. I therefore support the amendment laid today.

This week is Hate Crime Awareness Week. It is a key time for our third sector partners and the four police forces. I have again made funding available to the four police and crime commissioners to support activities during the week, with a focus on increasing awareness and community engagement across Wales.

In 2014, we launched ‘Tackling Hate Crimes and Incidents: A Framework for Action’, which sets out this Government’s commitment to change hostility and prejudice across all the protected characteristics. Our framework includes objectives on prevention, support and improving the multi-agency response. I published an updated delivery plan, as I said, in July. Since 2014, we have provided funding to Victim Support Cymru to operate the national hate crime report and support centre, and I’ve recently agreed to fund a national reporting centre for a further three years. This service, which is currently out to tender, is critical to provide independent advocacy and support for victims.

We also continue to work closely with a range of criminal justice agencies through the hate crime criminal justice board, and our independent advisory group, which helps to monitor the progress from the grass-roots level.

So, what progress have we made? We have seen a 20 per cent increase in hate crime reporting in 2015-16 and this can in large part be attributed to better awareness, confidence amongst victims and more accurate recording. However, we know that up to 50 per cent of victims are still not reporting, so there is much more to be done to assure victims that it is both important and worthwhile to report what they have suffered.

We have made huge strides and we can be immensely proud that Wales is leading the way, but there is no room for complacency. We cannot ignore that part of the reported increase reflects a real spike in hate crimes following the EU referendum, nor the reality that some groups in our communities are more fearful following that vote. There are significant challenges ahead to reassure the majority and confront the few who want to incite hatred. We are ready for those challenges. The national reporting centre has delivered hate crime training to front-line key staff and community partners. In total 2,390 people have benefitted from this training.

We must listen to the concerns that communities have voiced following the referendum and we must also be very clear indeed that the vote has not—and will not—legitimised hatred or abuse toward ethnic minority people and non-British nationals. Many people have said that they have lived in Wales for a generation but have experienced hate for the first time in the past few months; this will not be tolerated. I have spoken to the police and crime commissioners to ensure everything possible is being done to monitor and support the situation and the victims.

As Assembly Members, we work with and listen to a wide range of people across our communities and constituencies. It’s important that we all reinforce the importance of reporting. This, of course, applies to hate crime based on a range of characteristics, including disability. Despite all the progress that’s been made, for example around the Paralympics, disabled people continue to be stigmatised and to experience abuse and hate. Whilst we’ve seen progress, including an increase in reporting, we must continue to strengthen and link with the disability organisations and communities across Wales.

Similarly, we need to be aware and maintain a clear focus on hate crime against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people. In fact, across Wales, sexual orientation hate crime was the second most commonly recorded hate crime. We will continue to tackle all forms of homophobia in our schools, in the workplace and in our communities. In Wales, transgender hate crimes had the lowest levels of reporting during 2015 and 2016, and we are committed to addressing this through our transgender action plan and will continue to work with partners across Wales.

It is clear that education plays a vital role in addressing hate. Children and young people need an inclusive learning environment that values diversity, builds tolerance and understanding. When incidents happen, schools need to be clear about their arrangements to challenge unacceptable words and behaviour, including racism, and support the children involved. The Welsh Government has been working with Show Racism the Red Card since 2013 in developing resources to support schools and practitioners in tackling racism in the education sector. We’ve approved further work that will help equip and empower our teachers with the confidence to tackle racism and discrimination in our classrooms.

Social media plays a significant role in most of our lives, and in this area there are significant challenges we all have the responsibility to face. We can see every day how the media and social networks affect our views on the world. Responses to the recent world events have led to an increase in the number of people airing racist and religious intolerance online. This is totally unacceptable and we will continue to look at new and innovative ways to tackle it. This week we’re publishing guides on online hate crime aimed at practitioners, the public and young people.

I look forward to the comments made by Members today on this very important day marking hate crime week.

I have selected the amendment to the motion. I call on Mark Isherwood to move the amendment tabled in the name of Paul Davies.

Amendment 1—Paul Davies

Add as new point at end of motion:

Notes the key recommendations of the 'All Wales Hate Crime Research Project', which include that:

a) more needs to be done to increase the confidence of victims and witnesses to report hate incidents and to promote the view that reporting hate is the ‘right thing to do’; and

b) more should be done to ensure that hate crime perpetrators are dealt with effectively and that restorative approaches should be made more widely available in Wales.

Amendment 1 moved.

As North Wales Police state, a hate crime incident is any incident perceived by the victim as being motivated by prejudice or hate. Although the National Police Chiefs Council have stated that recorded hate crimes increased following the result of the EU referendum, this problem is not exclusive to the post-EU-referendum period. Hate crimes recorded by South Wales Police for the two weeks to the end of June decreased slightly, but increased slightly in the first week of July, compared to the same weeks in 2015. The number of recorded hate crimes in Wales rose by more than 20 per cent during 2014-15, with almost 75 per cent classed as race hate crimes—a 19 per cent increase on the previous year. But campaigners said then that much of the rise was due, as the Minister said, to better reporting and communities feeling more positive about coming forward to report incidents.

Reporting of hate crimes should be encouraged, hence our amendment 1 noting the key recommendations of the all-Wales hate crime research project on which the Welsh Government’s tackling hate crime framework is based. These include:

‘more needs to be done to increase the confidence of victims and witnesses to report hate incidents and to promote the view that reporting hate is the “right thing to do”.’

More needs to be done. It goes on to say that victims felt that incidents were too trivial to report or that the police were unable to do anything, and recommends that Welsh Government should take the lead on ensuring that accessible third-party reporting mechanisms are in place for victims who don’t want to report directly to the police.

As the Minister said, Victim Support has been commissioned by the Welsh Government as the official national hate crime report and support centre for Wales. I also attended last year’s launch of the north Wales victim help centre—a partnership between Victim Support, the north Wales police and crime commissioner, North Wales Police, the Crown Prosecution Service and local third sector services, providing victim-centred emotional and practical support for victims of all crime types. They have a dedicated mental health and well-being caseworker and hate crime caseworker. Their strapline states that they will ensure that the needs of victims will be at the heart of everything they do.

I also sponsored last year’s Rainbow Bridge launch event here in the Pierhead building, where Victim Support has been funded by the Big Lottery Fund to run a specialist domestic abuse service for people who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual and/or transgender. Quoting the all-Wales hate crime research project, our amendment also states that

‘more should be done to ensure that hate crime perpetrators are dealt with effectively and that restorative approaches should be made more widely available in Wales.’

It continues: the research shows

‘that victims’ overriding desire is for the hate incidents to stop happening to them.’

They also want sanctions to be relevant to the offence committed and for perpetrators to recognise the impact of their actions. Many of the respondents emphasised the importance of education, indicating that restorative approaches should be used more widely and consistently. It is a concern, therefore, it said, to find that there is currently very little restorative practice being undertaken in Wales.

The Older People’s Commissioner for Wales has warned that there is an increasing problem of older people being specifically targeted by criminals due to their supposed vulnerabilities. Despite this, they say, there remains a gap in the law that does not recognise these crimes, committed against older people because of their age, as hate crimes, whereas crimes committed against someone because of their disability, gender identity, race, religion, belief or sexual orientation are recognised in legislation as hate crimes due to their motivating factors and, as a consequence, additional penalties are considered there.

Hate crime is a serious offence that can have devastating and long-lasting effects on individuals and communities across Wales. During this National Hate Crime Awareness Week, we must tackle hate crime issues by raising awareness of what hate crime is and how to respond to it, encouraging reporting and promoting local support services and resources. As the North Wales Association for Multicultural Integration states, it believes

‘in the formation of a respectful, peaceful and healthy society through an understanding of the diverse cultures that exist in Wales today’.

And, as the holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel stated,

‘I swore never to be silent whenever…human beings endure suffering and humiliation. We must always take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented.’

Thank you for this debate today. Plaid Cymru obviously is completely opposed to hate crime, and what I’d like to say at the beginning is that I think the target of hate crime changes from generation to generation and from community to community. I say this because my mother comes from Belfast, from the north of Ireland, and I remember distinctly, when we were walking down the street—sadly, in a Valleys community, but I’m not branding everybody that way—and a woman came up to her and heard her talking and said, ‘Why don’t you just go home?’ My mother said, ‘Well, this is my home, and I’ve got nowhere else to go’. So, I think, sometimes—I remember that and I was only about seven years old—the things that you remember have a distinct way of shaping your life. I think that’s why it’s so important that, even though there may be people who come to our country for various reasons, we should always start from a degree of tolerance. Everybody has their own stories to tell. Everybody has their own backgrounds to their own situations, regardless of ethnicity, sexuality or gender. So, I think sometimes, in all of this debate, yes, there may be people who are coming here for the wrong reasons, but we don’t know that until we actually talk to them. I think many people—the media and political parties—brand certain ethnicities or groups of people without even taking a second thought as to the torment that they’ve gone through to perhaps get to this country in the first place.

We all know that hate crime has grown as a result of Brexit. I don’t know if it’s directly associated or whether it was a way in which people then thought that it was acceptable to come out with some inflammatory behaviour. When we had the communities and culture briefing with various organisations recently, we heard people saying that it’s getting worse in our schools, whereby other children are saying, because of the colour of their skin, they should not be present in the school environment anymore. I think that’s very, very worrying, if this type of attitude is deemed acceptable.

Last weekend, we had the social media campaign #WeAreWales, showing an appetite to combat this kind of hostility. People want to live in strong, happy and inclusive communities. The principle of treating everyone with respect, regardless of who they are or what their background is, is under threat, and we need to protect that.

We know that the Welsh Government’s report suggests that the increase in recorded hate crime offences could be viewed as a positive indicator, much like, potentially, with people reporting domestic violence, that people are coming forward to report that more because they feel more empowered to be able to do so. So, that might be a good indicator, but then it might show also that our communities are becoming more fraught with issues that we really need to get to grips with. So, I would call for some more rational and logical approach to the public debate on immigration, rather than fearmongering, which is driving division in our communities.

We need to have an informed debate. There may be people from different political parties who are as guilty as each other in all of this. Rachel Reeves claimed at her party’s annual conference in September that tensions over immigration could explode into riots if the issue isn’t controlled. Using the word ‘riots’—it’s quite a strong word when you think about how this could impact on our communities.

We need to address the fears of people in our communities with practical steps, like legislation to stop employers from undercutting the domestic workforce, not with reckless rhetoric. Much of people’s concerns arise from problems caused by the Tory UK Government’s destructive austerity agenda. Rather than acknowledging this and holding the Tories to account, we see, again, communities being pitted against other communities and then increasing that fear that I’ve mentioned already. It hasn’t been helpful—. I watched ‘Question Time’ last night. I hadn’t been here to see it originally, on Thursday. I just think that the Secretary of State for Wales not only attacking our own party but distorting history with smears and insinuation also made politicians come over in a very negative light. I think that he needs to justify what he said, and if he is associating a political party with what he said on that programme, then he needs to justify why and how, and give us evidence as to how he’s come to that conclusion.

We all want to be treated in this place with respect amongst each other. We all want that to happen. Yes, we will argue and debate, but we can go outside this Chamber and we can talk to each other in a civil fashion. I think sometimes, if we just think about how we would like to be treated as human beings, then we can perhaps frame our political debate in a more positive and constructive way.

Can I thank the Cabinet Secretary for bringing forward this particular motion, which I think is well timed, given where we are this week? No doubt a good proportion of what we are going to hear today will be related to hate crime post Brexit. We’ve heard some of that already. But we shouldn’t forget that hate crime does include attacks—as we’ve already heard—based on gender, homophobia, disability and gender assignment. As figures and anecdotal evidence indicate, there’s not only an increase in race hate crime, but in all these other areas as well. Although it has been indicated that Brexit may or may not be responsible for this, I just think that it is too coincidental that, post-Brexit, we have seen such rises in other areas. It’s almost as though Brexit itself gave people—well, certain people—the green light to express their abhorrent prejudices, directing their hatred at anyone whom they perceive to be different to themselves.

Llywydd, today, I wanted to specifically deal with attacks on those with disabilities. As the Cabinet Secretary has already indicated, figures did show that in 2014-15, there was a 20 per cent increase reported in all hate crime, of which 9 per cent related to disability. But of greater concern to me is the suggestion that at least 50 per cent of all hate crime is not reported at all. I will be amazed if the 2015-16 figures that we are about to see—they will be announced this week—don’t show that that figure has increased significantly as a result of the post-Brexit situation.

But while referencing the increase in reported cases of disability-related hate crime, we should always remember to look behind the figures. As has been said, an increase in reported cases could, of course, mean that more people have the confidence to report such crimes, knowing that they will be both believed and supported, and that authorities will pursue, with appropriate vigour, action against the perpetrator. So, perhaps of more significance might be an analysis of the number of prosecutions over that same period, and we don’t have that information at the moment.

However, there is always a danger in focusing solely on statistics. We should never lose sight of the fact that, for every case of disability-related hate crime, whether reported or not, whether a prosecution results or not, there is a victim—a victim who may already be among the most vulnerable in our society. So, we must always be mindful of their needs and how best we, as a society, can support them. To start addressing this, we do need to have a fully developed prevention strategy. Part of that, as the Cabinet Secretary has alluded to, must be the education, not just of children, but of the whole society. Of particular importance is that everyone appreciates that diversity should not just be accepted but should be welcomed and fostered. It is for this reason, Llywydd, that I wholeheartedly welcome the Welsh Government’s framework for action delivery plan. I am particularly pleased to see specific initiatives set out in the delivery plan in the areas of disability: the equality and inclusion grant supporting the work of Taking Flight theatre with young people; the work with Disability Sport Wales to recruit and train more coaches and leaders who are disabled; support for the disability hate crime group to work with communities in raising awareness of hate crime; and ensuring flexible and accessible reporting mechanisms to report hate crime.

In conclusion, colleagues, can I urge not just support for this motion, but ask each and every one of you, as elected Members of this Assembly, to make delivery of this wide-ranging, innovative and progressive delivery plan a reality across the whole of Wales?

I welcome effective measures to tackle hate crime and all forms of prejudice. Hate crime is a crime based in prejudice and bigotry. I have always lived by the principle of live how you choose, believe what you like as long as you don’t harm anyone. Sadly, there are many people who don’t live by that principle. There are people who want to drive out behaviours they see as aberrant, who want to drive out people they regard as different, who want to silence those with different beliefs or political views, and who will use violence and intimidation to do so. There is a continuum of prejudice, with ignorance at one end and hate crime at the other. Bigots and thugs sit on the left and right of politics. It was prejudice that said voting ‘leave’ was about ignorance, lack of education and fear, when it was really about people understanding that the EU wasn’t working for them. We in north-east Wales have seen how the local Labour Party conducts itself and controls its thugs at an electoral count. Prejudice against the English or people who live in England is just as nasty as prejudice against any immigrant who comes to Wales.

As with other crime statistics, an increase in the number of hate crimes reported is not necessarily an indication that more of those crimes are actually being committed. Increases in reported crime are therefore more a testament to the effectiveness of the publicity machine surrounding hate crime than evidence that our society has become more intolerant. The statistics that gave rise to this debate are far from indicative of what’s happening on the streets and elsewhere. We need a proper investigation into the actual prevalence of hate crime in our society, and not leap on some unreliable data because it suits certain people’s political agendas.

I'm very pleased to take part in this debate, especially during this awareness week, and I thank the Cabinet Secretary for updating us on the progress that has been made and his acknowledgement that there is still a long way to go. Although progress has been made, hate crime is still a daily reality for many people in Wales, ruining people’s lives and people living in dread of being the victims of hate crimes. It is an appalling reflection of the society we live in, and it does cover so many areas. Today, I wanted to particularly concentrate on the treatment of members of the Gypsy, Roma and Traveller community, who are very frequently the target of hate crimes and discrimination here in Wales. This targeting of this community is nothing new; it has gone on for many, many years.

During Hate Crime Awareness Week, I know that a group of young people from the community in south-east Wales will be meeting with the Police and Crime Commissioner for Gwent to talk about tackling bullying and hate crime directed at the Gypsy, Roma and Traveller community. I think that is very welcome, so that the issues can be considered by the commissioner, because, sadly, the community suffers from discrimination and there is a need to tackle negative attitudes towards this community. Young people from the Gypsy and Traveller community who were involved in the Travelling Ahead project feel very strongly that there is still a need to train teachers, police officers and other professionals, because there is still discrimination and hate crimes being targeted at them, and they have collated and created a number of resources to combat this. For example, they’ve made some short films, written poems and presentations, which will be made available when training teachers, police, councillors and other young people.

And that leads me on to another point, which is that when hate crimes are reported, it still seems that there is a problem with how those crimes are dealt with and how they are recorded. The all-Wales hate crime research project collated the number of hate crimes that had been recorded in England and Wales in 2011-12, and the vast majority of those, 82 per cent, were race hate crimes, but only 45 per cent of those who were victims of hate crime felt that the police took the matter as seriously as they should have done, and this chimes with the experiences of Gypsies and Travellers involved in the Travelling Ahead project. They feel that the police still don't listen to them. I know that there is training going on with the police, but the perception of the young people is that they are not being listened to.

I think there's also an issue about the way that police forces collect statistics about hate crime and that the ethnic status data are quite difficult to break down. So, it is actually quite difficult to get an analysis of the number of hate crimes that are specifically directed against Gypsies and Travellers, because they are subsumed in the overall ethnic crime figures. I think that would be a great improvement if we could actually break down the figures, because, in particular with Gypsies and Travellers, we need to know what those figures are and how great this suffering is.

I'd like to just finally, really, end with the thoughts of one of the young people from the Travelling Ahead group, Tyrone Price. He put forward a question that I think is very thought provoking, and I think it’s a very valid question: have we actually improved tackling racism, or are people just pretending to accept this concept of equality? I think this is obviously what a young person feels very strongly, that a lot of the progress we have made towards equality, some of it is perhaps token, and we have to really make race equality an absolute reality, particularly for the young people who are suffering from prejudice and hate crime. As I say, my remarks are really about the Gypsy and Traveller community today.

I want to just speak briefly in this debate today, and I’m pleased that we’re having it, because I think it is important that we take the time to reflect on the intolerance that sometimes exists here in Welsh society. We know that, by and large, the overwhelming majority of people in Wales are very tolerant people, and our communities by and large get on very well. But, as the son of an Irish immigrant, I also know of the hate that has existed towards smaller populations in Wales, and indeed in other parts of the United Kingdom in the past. I certainly don’t want to see that manifesting here on our doorsteps in our communities.

I’m very pleased that the Minister, and indeed the Welsh Government, is taking this issue seriously, and that they’ve been working with the police and other agencies in order to try and do what they can to deal with and address the hate crime that does exist here in Wales.

I was very pleased last week to chair the cross-party group on faith in the National Assembly, and a number of Assembly Members were also able to attend. At that meeting we heard some very interesting statistics, talking about the spike in hate crime that occurred post Brexit, and we were very relieved to hear that that spike in reported crime had actually settled down. I hope that that will become something that continues to reduce, of course, in the future. But I wonder, Minister, in your response to the debate today, whether you might be able to update us on the work of the faith communities forum that the First Minister convenes on a regular basis? Because I know how important that forum has been in terms of being able to improve the relationships between different faiths here in Wales, and indeed to help the faith community leaders of Wales to disseminate information back to their faith communities about the need to be tolerant and, indeed, to improve relationships more generally. Will you also join me, Minister, when you close the debate, in congratulating members of the faith communities forum, Cytûn, the Muslim Council of Wales, the Evangelical Alliance and many others, who’ve contributed to that excellent understanding and joint working across the different faith communities, which has achieved so much, really, here in Wales in recent years?

I notice as well that the report does touch on the importance of religious education in helping to get these messages about tolerance and understanding of people’s faiths and different attitudes in society over to the next generation. I really do believe that the curriculum overhaul that’s going on in Wales provides an opportunity to improve religious education in order to deal with, if you like, any emerging issues that there might be amongst our younger people, particularly when they’ve seen some of the reports in the media during the Brexit debate, and how that might have influenced their attitudes towards one another. I do believe that religious education has a very key role in helping to address hate crime in the future for our nation. So, I wonder, Minister, whether you can tell us what discussions you’ve been having with the Cabinet Secretary for Education in relation to ensuring that the development of our curriculum does include a focus on hate crime within the religious education curriculum. Thank you.

Minister, I think it’s very obviously the case—and I think all Members here would hopefully agree with this—that misunderstandings often occur and cause problems when we don’t have the level of integration that we might have in our communities, and we’re not effective enough in bringing different sections of the community together. Certainly, in my experience, having been born and brought up in Pill in Newport, a very multi-ethnic community, it adds a great deal to life experience, growing up in such a community, because there’s such a great variety of culture, of music, of dance, of food, and it’s really instructive and interesting to talk to other people in terms of their backgrounds, their family backgrounds and the parts of the world that they know a lot about. So, I believe it’s very enriching, and when people are brought together from different sections of the community, that is commonly their view, but perhaps not enough is done to try to achieve that integration and bring different parts of our society together.

When we do have effective ways of doing that, I think we should celebrate them and build on them. In that respect, I’d like to mention Maindee Festival in Newport, which, for a number of years, has done really good work in bringing different sections of the multi-ethnic Maindee community together. There are substantial Asian communities in Maindee, lots of new arrivals from the European Union, eastern Europe and beyond, West Indian communities, and many others. And, of course, that’s in addition to people from Ireland—and my own mother, like the relative that Darren Millar mentioned, came over to Newport from Ireland. So, very many people from different backgrounds come together, and the Maindee Festival really does allow that coming together to take place and that integration to happen.

So, I’d like to pay tribute to the organisers of the Maindee Festival. For many years now, they’ve built upon the initial event. There’s a parade every year, every summer, and a festival follows. It’s music, it’s dance, it’s food and drink, it’s art and culture generally, and it’s very, very successful. Of course, it doesn’t happen without a lot of work, and the work to organise the next year’s event really begins just after the festival ends, during the summer. So, I wonder whether Welsh Government might look at how they work not just with the Maindee Festival, but with similar organisations right across Wales that are organising these events, so that they can be built further and made even more effective. And I would like to invite the Minister to the Maindee Festival next summer in Newport. I’d be very pleased if he accepted that invitation in his contribution to this debate later.

UKIP supports the motion and the amendments, but I want to deal right at the very start of my short contribution with the canard that we’ve heard a few times in the debate today about the influence of Brexit upon the prevalence of hate crimes. Well, there’s no point in going back over the arguments on the numbers immediately post the referendum, because the National Police Chief’s Council has released the data for the period since the referendum, up to the end of August. Mark Hamilton—no relation—assistant chief constable says,

‘We have seen continued decreases in reports of hate crimes to forces and these reports have now returned to formerly seen levels for 2016. For this reason, we will return to our previous reporting procedures and will no longer be requiring weekly updates from forces.’

So, if there was a spike immediately after the referendum, then it has disappeared.

Thank you. I was just going to say, they are not Wales-specific figures, I assume, that you’re referring to. One thing that we do know is that there was a spike post Brexit in Wales. Things have settled down, as I said in my speech earlier. That’s the reported information that’s coming back to us. But, you must accept that some people, albeit few, used the Brexit situation to fuel hatred between communities in Wales, and that was not acceptable.

Well, of course it’s not acceptable, if it happened, but the extent to which it happened—[Interruption.] We have no first-hand information; we are assuming it happened. You are making assumptions that it happened. We have no first-hand information as to what this—. In fact, this is the point I wanted—[Interruption.] I’m afraid I can’t give way, because of the shortness of time.

It’s your decision, if you’re not taking an intervention.

I do want to make what I think is an important point here, that, of course, hate crime, in whatever form it exists is to be deplored and not to be tolerated and, indeed, to be punished, and punished severely. But, we must keep this in perspective. Britain, and Wales in particular, are tolerant countries. We are not bigots. The number of hate crimes recorded is actually very, very small. The figures to which the Cabinet Secretary referred in the 2014-15 report show a total of 2,259. That’s 2,259 too many, but even if there is underreporting, as we all assume that there is, it’s still not a vast number for a year. Dawn Bowden made the point that the increases may partly be a result of greater awareness of the means of reporting and of the need to report. So, I don’t think that this is an epidemic, by any means.

We have seen, in the last couple of years, the disappearance of the British National Party, the English Defence League has shrivelled to a fraction of its former importance, and my party, for years, has had a policy of proscribing political parties and not allowing refugees from them into our ranks. So, if anybody is trying to libel us by saying that we take in racists, they are very much to be deplored themselves. Indeed, Joyce Watson accused me the other day in this Chamber of standing on a platform of hatred. That in itself is a form of hate crime, I suppose, and intolerance. So, I think that Members on all sides of the house should treat each other with respect, as Bethan Jenkins said in her opening remarks. What I want this Chamber to accept is that hate crime, yes, of course, is to be deplored, but it is not an epidemic and it doesn’t look as though it’s going to become so.

The figures that are recorded in the report to which the Cabinet Secretary referred come from the True Vision website. Not all of the reports are investigated by the police, because you can make reports anonymously and, therefore, it would be impossible to take them further. So, that reinforces the point that I started making at the beginning of my speech. It is also self-selecting, and I quote—because this is what justifies a hate crime in terms of the figures that are recorded:

‘Evidence of the hostility is not required for an incident or crime to be recorded as a hate crime or hate incident…. the perception of the victim, or any other person…is the defining factor….The victim does not have to justify or provide evidence of their belief, and police officers or staff should not directly challenge this perception.’

So, the figures that we have have to be seen in the light of those self-selecting rules. I mean, 1 per cent of the figures cover bicycle thefts, for example. I don’t know what a racially motivated bicycle theft is, but that, I think, should inspire us to treat with caution treating the figures as if they are holy writ.

It is indeed a slur upon the millions and millions of people who voted for Brexit because of their fears about the social effects of too rapid mass immigration to call their motivations racist. Actually, the Labour Party, in making that claim, are actually attacking their own supporters and former supporters, because the biggest Brexit votes in Wales, of course, as we know, took place in places like Torfaen, Merthyr, Ebbw Vale, and so on, and so forth. So, I think it is a mistake for us to allow the debate on hate crime to wander off into the byways of politics because, yes, hate crime is something to be deplored and, so far as we can do it, to be eradicated, but we will not do that by casting slurs upon people who do not hate and are not racists. Therefore, we need to keep this in perspective.

Yes, we support the motion and we support the aims of the Government, and the measured way in which the Cabinet Secretary introduced this debate today is to be applauded. For my part and my party’s part, we will support the initiatives that the Government has set in train. But, please, don’t cast the slur of racism and intolerance upon us.

I welcome the Welsh Government’s position of tackling hate crime as a priority and it continues to take a zero-tolerance approach, as each and every one of us should, to hate crime. It’s right that the tackling hate crime and incidents framework covers hate crime of all kinds, including race, religion, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity and age. There can be no hierarchy of hate and our resolve to tackle all crimes of this nature must be absolute. The challenge for us is to ensure that the intentions and guidance in the framework translate positively into action and change in real life for people in our communities across Wales. All of us in elected and public life have a responsibility and duty of care regarding how we conduct ourselves and the way in which we choose to communicate. What may just be words for one person have the potential to inflict pain and, in some cases, incite hate on another.

I was shocked, but sadly not surprised, to learn over the weekend of a rise in homophobic attacks since the EU referendum vote in May. Figures released by the charity Galop show that homophobic attacks rose by 147 per cent in the people surveyed in the same three-month period following this year’s Brexit vote compared to the same time last year. And this is just the people surveyed, the people who felt able to share their experiences. The real figures could be even higher—

Will you take an intervention?

Quickly.

She raises the question of people feeling able to share their experiences. Would she acknowledge that the incidents of transphobic hate crime are significantly under-reported at about 1 per cent of all hate crimes? And, would she agree that a focus on community work between trans organisations and the police, for example, the Swansea Sparkle event partnership with the South Wales Police, can help support people to report crimes that they’ve been victims of?

Absolutely, yes. It’s important that trans people and their voices are heard in shaping and being instrumental in strategies and services that are there to support them. Continued action, partnership and vigilance is needed by all, and tackling hate crime and the conduct and compassion of political representatives is integral.

This week might be Hate Crime Awareness Week, but today is National Coming Out Day, and to use an analogy that Members might be more familiar with, coming out, like devolution, can be a process not an event. For many of us, coming out is not a one-off experience, but something you repeat time and time again, because there is still a straight assumption in society reinforced by rigid stereotypes and gender roles. We’ve come a long way, but coming out still remains a deeply personal moment for most LGBT people. Our choice to reveal this part of our identity comes with a fear of how others will react, a fear of rejection, of prejudice and even of hate. I felt some of this trepidation myself and a little bit of fear when I first stood for election, as an out woman. But I was lucky; I knew I had the support of amazing family, friends, Welsh Labour colleagues and campaigners, and I hope that every LGBT person can find a network of friendship and support that allows them to be themselves and, in turn, challenge isolation and hate.

The Welsh Government’s hate crime delivery plan sets out the actions to prevent hate crime and support victims across Government. Now we must all work to ensure that this equals positive actions across life, on our streets, in our workplaces and in our communities.

I call on the Cabinet Secretary to respond to the debate—Carl Sargeant.

Thank you, Presiding Officer. I’m grateful for the opportunity to respond to this broadly welcomed debate by many. The successes around tackling hate crime have focused on an integral partnership approach with a range of third sector and statutory partners across Wales. This approach has paid dividends as we take forward the delivery of better outcomes for victims.

Many comments were shared across the Chamber that I consistently support, and I’m grateful for the contributions by many Members, including the opening remarks by Bethan Jenkins in her view of localised issues that she was aware of as well, which happen on a daily basis, and as a child.

The points Darren Millar raised about the faith forum is an important one. The faith forum has been used as a useful, effective tool of sharing different faiths and understandings in a reasoned way with people who can help each other understand the difficulties of explaining faith and remove tensions. It’s something that the First Minister and now I, as chair, work very closely with organisations across Wales on. I’ve already had a message from the education Cabinet Secretary telling us about the new curriculum and how faith will feature in there. It may be a discussion that the Member wishes to pursue.

Can I say, apart from the contributions made by the UKIP Members, I very warmly welcome the consideration made by Members? But I’m speechless—I’m speechless—at the contributions from Michelle Brown and Neil Hamilton today. Bethan Jenkins used the quote about treating others how we would like to be treated—equally—and I think that’s an important point that I would ask those Members to reflect on. Of course, the suggestion by UKIP of ‘dodgy figures’, ‘It was only a few figures…it was only a few hate crimes…1 per cent…it doesn’t really matter then, does it?’ Well, let me tell you, those people—

Neil Hamilton rose—

No. I will give way in a second.

[Continues.]—those people who are suffering from hate crime have got a right to equality here in Wales. And whether the Member lives in Wiltshire or wherever, the fact is, here, we’re a welcoming country here in Wales—[Interruption.] I’ll take the intervention from the Member if he wants to try and dig a hole further.

I’m not sure whether it’ll be worth it, Llywydd, but, nevertheless, I said in the course of my speech that hate crime was wholly to be deprecated and not to be tolerated and to be punished severely where it exists. All I did was to refer to the figures in the report, which the Minister himself referred to in his speech, and subject them to a little statistical scrutiny. What’s wrong with that?

Yes, well I’m grateful for the intervention from the Member. Let me remind the Member of these statistics: 1,574 were race related; 319 related to sexuality; 240 to disability; 90 to religion; and 25 to transgender. These are the ‘small’ numbers that the Member refers to in regard to a small proportion of hate crime. Let me remind the Member also of the referendum, which he also dismisses as having had any impact on hate crime at all. In light of the recent rises in racism following the outcomes of the EU referendum it’s important that we continue to work together to tackle this intolerance. In the month following the EU referendum—the Member can’t contradict these; they are figures issued by the Home Office—there was a 72 per cent increase in referrals to the Welsh Government-funded national hate crime report and support centre in comparison to the referrals in 2015. The only common thing that happened there was the EU referendum. You cannot dispute that programme.

As the Member is the leader now of the UKIP programme, maybe he would have a view, when he said about people suggesting that UKIP bring into their ranks racists et cetera—maybe now the leader would like to refer back to a media report where one of his Members, currently, blamed ethnic minorities for litter and hygiene problems here in Cardiff. Now, what’s the Member going to do about that in his statement regarding hate crime?

Let me just remind Members—this is an important debate in national hate crime week, and we should all come together to deliver on a welcoming country for all. I hope Neil Hamilton and Michelle Brown will reflect on their comments today and consider their implications for the wider communities that they are now here to represent. I’m glad for the opportunity to speak about these issues during hate crime week and I look forward to working with Members of all parties to tackle all forms of hate wherever that occurs.

Thank you to the Cabinet Secretary. The proposal is to agree amendment 1. Does any Member object? No, so amendment 1 is therefore agreed in accordance with Standing Order 12.36.

Amendment 1 agreed in accordance with Standing Order 12.36.

The proposal therefore is to agree the motion as amended.

Motion NDM6113 as amended:

To propose that the National Assembly for Wales:

1. Notes the progress made through the Welsh Government's Tackling Hate Crime Framework.

2. Recognises, in light of recent events, the continuing challenges posed by hate crime.

3. Notes the key recommendations of the 'All Wales Hate Crime Research Project', which include that:

a) more needs to be done to increase the confidence of victims and witnesses to report hate incidents and to promote the view that reporting hate is the ‘right thing to do’; and

b) more should be done to ensure that hate crime perpetrators are dealt with effectively and that restorative approaches should be made more widely available in Wales.

Does any Member object? No, so the motion as amended is agreed.

Motion NDM6113 as amended agreed in accordance with Standing Order 12.36.