7. 5. Statement: Working Together for Safer Communities

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 4:11 pm on 7 February 2017.

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Photo of Carl Sargeant Carl Sargeant Labour 4:11, 7 February 2017

I thank the Member for her concise questions. Indeed, on the issue around police and crime commissioners, I meet them on a regular basis, and also meet the chief officers. You’re right to raise the issue around the hate that is being perpetrated by many right-wing individuals. It’s something that the police are very keen to clamp down on. In addition to that, we invest around CONTEST and the extremism board in Wales to make sure we’ve got a handle on what’s going on in our communities. But the reporting has increased, and since Brexit there has been a peak in terms of hate crime, and it’s something that the commissioners are concerned about, and I’ve raised that with them in terms of managing that situation.

With regard to healthy relationships and domestic violence, I’m grateful for the Member’s comments on the positive actions that we are continuing to deliver as a Government, but you’re pushing at an open door here with me about healthy relationships and how we develop those. The Diamond review is a critical part of looking at the curriculum for the future, and I know that the Cabinet Secretary for Education—we have had conversations about what healthy relationships look like in terms of moving that forward.

The fire service have done a tremendous job in reducing the number of fires. As I said earlier, there’s been around a 50 per cent reduction in the fire activity of the authorities, but it’s something I talk to the chief fire officers and the boards about. I spoke to them this week, actually, around the national issues committee, where we’re looking at collaboration and working together to do new duties or new opportunities. It is an important process that we talk to the trade unions and the management of the teams to ensure that we can move forward together in a positive way, where they can move into a new role that secures the fire stations and fire personnel within our communities, which we all value dearly.

In terms of devolving police, we’re not experiencing too much tension at the moment with regard to activity, but our position on devolving the police was very clear in terms of the Wales Bill. We are at a position in time at the moment, but who knows in the future? Devolution may aid us in terms of managing community safety better for us.