6. Will the Leader of the House provide an update on the role of national advisers in helping to implement the Violence against Women, Domestic Abuse and Sexual Violence (Wales) Act 2015? OAQ51606

Yes. As I said earlier, I'm very delighted that Yasmin Khan and Nazir Afzal have been appointed as the national advisers, and I'm very much looking forward to working with them. They bring an enormous amount of experience and they'll be advising Ministers and working with victims, survivors and other stakeholders to improve our services and to report on our progress.

Thank you, leader of the house. As we mark the fortieth anniversary of Welsh Women’s Aid this week, will you join me in acknowledging the history, impact and value of the third sector in Wales, including not only Welsh Women’s Aid but Bawso, Hafan Cymru, Llamau, local and regional women's aid groups, Atal y Fro? These organisations provide vital services for victims of domestic abuse, but they also work with the statutory and criminal justice agencies who have the power in statute to make changes by implementing the law and making domestic violence a priority. What more can the Welsh Government do to ensure that there is united effort—with the backing of this Assembly; I think this has been demonstrated this afternoon across this Assembly—to prevent the next 40 years continuing the statistics that one in three women in Wales experience violence and abuse?

I very much join Jane Hutt in acknowledging the history, impact and value of the sector in Wales and, indeed, her own long history in this sector. I'm very grateful for organisations such as Welsh Women’s Aid and all the others who've made a stand to eradicate this sort of abuse in our society. They absolutely offer vital support to victims and survivors. I'm very pleased to say that I'm speaking at the celebration tomorrow of 40 years of Welsh Women’s Aid. 

We're very much working with organisations and survivors to understand their experiences and how the system can be developed to prevent violence against women, domestic abuse and sexual violence. This is helping to achieve the objectives set out in the national strategy. I'm looking forward to the national advisers' input into this strategy, and we recognise the invaluable contribution made by a range of organisations, including public services, independent specialist service providers and wider voluntary sector organisations. The Member very rightly asked what else we're doing to look to see what we can do, and we're working with relevant authorities set out in the Act—local authorities, local health boards, NHS trusts and fire and rescue authorities. We also recognise the need to work with the police, police and crime commissioners, the education services, housing organisations, third sector specialist violence against women, domestic abuse and sexual violence services, survivors and the non-devolved crime and justice agencies.

So, it very much is an absolutely multi-agency approach. We're also incredibly sure to make sure that the third sector organisations are clearly engaged throughout the commissioning process to contribute constructively to the design, delivery and review of the commissioning process and to make sure that we have proper regional coverage and collaboration across the sector. The sector's always been very good at this, and I'm sure they'll continue to co-operate with us as we look to put our commissioning guidance out in the foreseeable future, but I absolutely do pay tribute to the 40 years of history so far. I can't say I look forward to the next 40 years, because I very much look forward to not needing these services, but I'm sure that, as long as the services are needed, organisations such as Welsh Women's Aid will be there to meet that need.

And, finally, question 7—Hefin David.