3. Will the Cabinet Secretary outline what the Welsh Government is doing to improve community cohesion in Wales in light of recent terror related incidents? OAQ(5)0162(CC)

I thank the Member for her question. Our regional community cohesion co-ordinators and my community safety officials are working hard with our partners to provide reassurance. This includes monitoring and responding quickly to community tensions. In the longer term, we are working to foster cohesion, tolerance and respect, and to support communities to prevent hostility and extremism.

Thank you. I asked you questions on this a few weeks ago and that was before the terror attack on Muslims at Finsbury Park mosque by a British man living in Cardiff. It shows that we need to take a different approach to looking at addressing these issues. It’s not just about expecting ethnic-minority communities to look inside their own practices and how they operate; it’s about how we can all play a part in activating community cohesion. So, I’m trying to understand, since that attack, what have you been doing to try and make sure that we work progressively together here in Wales, that we don’t have people from Wales carrying out these attacks, and identifying, where they are taking part in online discussions of this nature, that we can get to grips with this particular issue?

Of course, and I regret heavily the fact that this person came from Cardiff and committed this tragic attack. Can I say that this isn’t a switch-on moment for us in Wales? We’ve been doing lots of work with our communities, and that one person was one of 3 million people that live in Wales. I’ve met with the senior police team, and I met with the faith forum this week as well, trying to understand how we need to shift resources in terms of making a more tolerant, cohesive society. We perhaps have concentrated very much on very specific groups of people when, actually, we perhaps need to broaden that out, about acceptability, and that’s something I’m looking for further advice on from that team of people.

Cabinet Secretary, I know there’s a great deal of engagement that goes on with faith communities in Wales and the Welsh Government, and that’s work that I know is greatly valued by faith communities, but I think it is important that representative bodies, whether they be Christian or Muslim, in that faith communities forum represent the plethora of voices on behalf of their communities, because we all know that there are differences of opinions, different denominations et cetera, and I’m not confident that, actually, those are always represented around that table. I wonder what work you are doing to ensure that they are inclusive of the faiths that they represent.

We have regular conversations, actually. The faith forum, which is chaired by the First Minister, often has discussions with representatives of the sector and who they are representing. In fact, I remember a discussion from the last meeting about a group that felt their voices weren’t as strong as they could be, and how we were going to address that, and what I’d like to do is make sure that the people who are represented around the table can actually embed the voice of the many around there. If there is a very specific group of people that you’re concerned about, please drop me a line.

Cabinet Secretary, the answer to Bethan Jenkins, I think, has highlighted the issues about how this radicalism can arise in any sector; it’s not just particular sectors. So, do you agree with me that, actually, we need to undertake a measure to prevent radicalisation of young people from the hard right, which creates such extremist views, and what are you doing about that?

Of course, and, as I said to Bethan Jenkins, this isn’t about one particular group of people. Actually, many of the referrals that come through the Prevent programme in Wales relate to far-right extremism as well, and that’s something I know the police are very keen to make sure they tackle, and front-line staff are given training to look at this in the public sector.

The new Welsh baccalaureate for schools and colleges includes an option that helps support teachers and tutors, also, in facilitating safe and constructive discussions amongst learners on topics around extremism and community cohesion, and I think this is a job about starting very early, to ensure that our young people are tolerant as they grow up. They are the future, and if we can embed that as a natural instinct—to be tolerant—then I think that’s the way we need to go: to invest in our young people.