5. Will the Leader of the House provide an update on Welsh Government policies for supporting the LGBT community? OAQ52337

Yes, the Welsh Government is fully committed to supporting the LGBT community in Wales. Related action includes work on relationships and sexuality education, updated anti-bullying guidance and improvements to gender identity services. We also provide funding for Stonewall Cymru to support LGBTQ+ people and improve our understanding of issues that affect them.

Thank you, leader of the house. I was pleased to share a cross-party platform recently with the First Minister at an event sponsored by PinkNews to mark the thirtieth anniversary of the introduction of section 28, and also to welcome the progress in recent years by governments of all colours in advancing the rights of the LGBT community. You mentioned funding for Stonewall Cymru, and I'm sure you'll share my concerns that the latest Stonewall Cymru figures—in the media today, as it happens—show that more than a third of LGBT workers in Wales hide their sexuality over fears of discrimination.

There were also other worrying statistics there, such as 16 per cent of LGBT people saying that they are the target of negative comments or conduct in the workplace. So, clearly, we've come a long way over recent years, but we still have a considerable way to go. You've already outlined some of the areas where you're hoping to make inroads into tackling the problem of discrimination in Wales. I wonder whether you could tell us a little bit more about how your policies are going to deal specifically with this sort of discrimination, which shouldn't have any place in the modern workplace.

Yes, I absolutely agree—it absolutely should not have any place in the modern workplace. As I said in response to earlier questions, we're all appalled to see that it is still such a concern. As I said in my previous answer, there will be work with the Cabinet Secretary for Economy and Transport around making sure that the economic action plan picks up matters around discrimination of all sorts.

We are also working on our anti-bullying guidance. The Cabinet Secretary for Education recently announced relationships and sexuality education being a statutory part of the new curriculum, which is around education and acceptance. We are also running the 'This Is Me' campaign, the anti-gender-stereotyping campaign, which has been very successful indeed and has been embraced by a large number of organisations across Wales, to start the process of ensuring that people know that that kind of discrimination simply is not acceptable. What I would say to any individual who is experiencing that, of course, is that they should come forward. There are organisations that can help people combat that kind of discrimination in the workplace because it is, after all, illegal to discriminate in that way against people with protected characteristics.