Questions now from the party spokespeople. UKIP spokesperson, David Rowlands.

Diolch, Llywydd. Leader of the house, I have raised the question of car washes a number of times in this Chamber, but I make no apologies for raising it yet again. As long as people are being exploited in this way and the Welsh Government buries its head in the sand on this issue, I shall continue to press for action. So, will the leader of the house outline any actions the Government is taking to end this scourge in our society?

I assume the Member is referring to people being paid less than the minimum wage, and I share his concern that people should be paid the minimum wage in all business places. In my role as chair of the fair work board's phase 1, I've had a meeting with the enforcement authority, which is a UK-based enforcement authority, around the enforcement of the minimum wage, and we are looking at ways to ensure that the minimum wage enforcement provisions in Wales can be made better in order to—I completely agree—end the scourge of people being paid less than the minimum wage in any industry, anywhere in the country.

Well, I welcome that small amount of intervention, Minister, but I have to say, Dawn Frazer of the Car Wash Advisory Service said that everything bad you can think of for the British labour force is present in car washes—slavery, low wages, debt bondage, tax evasion and even sex exploitation of young women. So, just looking at that one aspect of low wages can hardly be said to be addressing this problem in the way that it should be addressed.

Well, if the Member has any specific details that he'd like to draw to my attention, I'd be most grateful to receive them, because that is quite a series of accusations. And I'd be very happy to look into any aspect of that that he's able to provide details of.

Quite frankly, it's out there in the media all the time. And I'm not quoting; I know you've called into question my statistics on this in the past, but it's out there with such things as the BBC, The Guardian, the Office for National Statistics, the New Statesman and The Independent. All of them have written about this and castigated the situation on a number of occasions, so the statistics and everything else are out there in the public domain.

Thank you for that. I will have another look at it. We have a number of preventative programmes around several of the issues that you've raised, including modern slavery, prevention of sexual harassment in the workforce and the minimum wage provisions, as I've suggested already. I'm more than happy to have another look at it, but if the Member has any specifics he'd like to actually direct my attention to, that would be most helpful.

Plaid Cymru spokesperson, Siân Gwenllian.

Members of your Government have described the Violence against Women, Domestic Abuse and Sexual Violence (Wales) Act 2015 as legislation that breaks new ground. Now, do you think that that is a fair description of how that Act is being implemented?

I've only just got to grips with this part of my portfolio, the Member will be aware, and I've yet to have a series of meetings with the officials who work in this area. I've not yet got a full grasp of that, but I'd be very happy to discuss this issue with the Member. I do, myself, have some concerns about the speed of implementation, but I'm not yet in a position to be able to detail them, and I apologise for that.

We’ve seen a report by committee that has expressed great concern about the implementation of the Act—that it is sluggish, or some parts haven’t been implemented at all. This week, I received an update on the situation and these are the facts for you: there is no action plan over a year since the strategy was published; it appears that no guidance related to local strategies has been published as of yet; the expert group on healthy relationships hasn’t published its recommendations—and those were to be issued in the autumn; it appears that no work was done on the guidance for higher education institutions; no national indicators were published to show progress towards the objectives of the Act; the statutory commissioning guidance, which was to be published in July of this year, hasn’t been published; the national adviser has resigned, and no replacement has been appointed. Would you agree that the only thing that breaks new ground here is the incredible scale of lack of action in the two years since this institution passed this legislation?

Well, as I say, I'm not in a position to comment on the situation before I took control of this portfolio. Since I've been in post, which is only a month, I've had a number of meetings around, for example, the progress of the healthy relationships guidance, which I understand will be ready in the new year. We are in the process of appointing the new national advisor, and I've been involved in some parts of that—again, in the very early stages of my taking control of the portfolio. We launched the 'ask and act' guidance only last week, and I was able to do that at a meeting that had been prearranged with a number of people who'd been interested in that guidance, and we'd had a preliminary discussion about that. I absolutely see the Member's commitment and worry in this instance, and I can assure you that one of my priorities in taking this portfolio will be to ensure that the Act is indeed the groundbreaking Act that we would all like to see it being.

Thank you. And I truly hope that we will see this progress as a matter of urgency now. And I thank you for your commitment, and I hope we will be in a far better position in a few months’ time.

And any legislation needs to be backed up by funding, of course, in order to truly achieve its potential. But, once again, I do have some concerns here, and Women’s Aid Wales have warned that further cuts to services such as refuges will lead to detrimental impacts for survivors of abuse, which could lead to loss of life. Can you now ensure that there will be no cuts to services such as women’s refuges and places for children? Under the circumstances, that’s the least the Government could do.

Well, I've had a number of discussions already about how we do the commissioning guidance, and what we're doing in terms of the national advisors going out. I've also had one preliminary discussion with my colleague here on my right about the financial arrangements for this. I'm not yet in a position to be able to make any pledges about where we are with that until I've got a better grip. But, I can tell you that I'm completely committed to making sure that this Act works, and that we do fund it, so that the people who need those refuges so badly do get them.

The Conservative spokesperson, Mark Isherwood.

Diolch, Llywydd. Modern slavery, clearly, affects or impacts across Wales, but there's a particular west-east issue in north Wales, where human trafficking through Holyhead port is a huge issue. North Wales lost its anti-slavery co-ordinator after three years of funding expired, when a charity was established—Haven of Light—to liaise with statutory partners, the voluntary sector, North Wales Police, local authorities, their lead officer in Anglesey on human trafficking, and so on. They've identified that the situation is getting worse. There's no safe house, reception centre facilities in north Wales, and the lack of an anti-slavery co-ordinator on a regional basis has created a gap, clearly, which they're filling. How will you engage, not only nationally, but directly with the north Wales network of bodies now working actively in this area, to tackle what is, worryingly, a growing problem?

The Member raises a very important point. We've established the Wales anti-slavery leadership group to provide strategic leadership and guidance on how to tackle slavery in Wales, and also to provide the best possible support for survivors. The membership of that group includes the National Crime Agency, the police, the Crown Prosecution Service, Cymru Wales Safeguarding, and other UK Government departments, academia, BAWSO, and a number of other third sector organisations. We're sharing the learning from across Wales with other partners, including the UK Government departments, and the UK Independent Anti-slavery Commissioner, and we're starting to gain quite a lot of recognition for that work. But the Member will appreciate that slavery is a very complex crime to investigate and prosecute, and it's very complex to get the range of measures in force and properly resourced.

The Member raised a very specific issue, which I'm afraid I'm not across at the moment, since I'm new in the portfolio. I'd be more than happy to look at the specifics of that, if he wants to write to me about it.

Thank you very much. One of the other concerns they raised with me was that the manifests used on the ferries are inaccurate, with names being made up by traffickers, and, of course, there's issues around access to ports in the context of Brexit, and so on. But, nonetheless, this is leading to people being able to exploit the system.

North Wales Police have produced a report and a systematic assessment of the risk and issues concerning modern-day slavery and human trafficking in north Wales, identifying particular organised crime groups working from outside north Wales, trafficking victims through Holyhead, and employing potential victims in nail bars and pop-up brothels. And there are also groups based in north Wales, linked by familial bonds, who are targeting vulnerable males for manual labour and canvassing. So, again, you refer to the all-Wales engagement you're having, and the UK engagement, but given that this is also a west-east issue in north Wales, with particular sensitivities, and the Holyhead port issue at the core, will you engage directly with them also?

Absolutely. I'm very much looking forward to going around the various organisations in Wales to talk about both how the national strategy works locally, and also to pick up the local issues which are around co-ordination, as the Member rightly identifies, and where the overlap of powers between devolved and UK Government responsibilities lies, so that we can make the most of those powers in tackling some of the really very terrible practices that he's highlighted. So, I'm more than happy to do that, and if the Member wants to invite me to see anything very specific, I'm very happy to take him up on that as well. 

Thank you. And, finally, on this theme, in fact, the Haven of Light organised a conference in St Asaph cathedral, which I took part in on 28 October, with police representation, local authorities, voluntary sector and others presenting. The Salvation Army told us that seventh out of the 94 nationalities they worked with were British victims, people who originated within the United Kingdom and its constituent nations, who

'had been tricked and then trapped'.

So, both on an all-Wales basis, and in this case, a regional basis, what consideration are you giving not only to those people being trafficked from outside Wales and the UK, but those within the UK and Wales who are being tricked and trapped into exploitation and slavery?

Yes, and that's a very important point, and we have a large range of Government initiatives that are designed to make sure that people have the right information to ensure that they don't enter into arrangements that they find themselves slowly sucked into, into situations where really they can't get back out. The Member has highlighted a number of issues. I'm aware of some that have arisen in my own constituency as well.

We will be working very hard to put a range of things in, first of all, to ensure that enforcement agencies understand what they're looking for and how to make sure that the people who are involved in those awful arrangements have the right information to extract themselves and the right advice; secondly, to put some programmes in place to make sure that people understand what they're being sucked into, and can put a stop to it early on; and, thirdly, to put the right support around the agencies that are involved to make sure that they recognise the signs of that starting to happen and can take appropriate preventative action. But, again, I make the same offer: if the Member has very specific things he'd like to me to look at, I'd be more than happy to do that.