Part of 3. Topical Questions – in the Senedd at 3:11 pm on 4 July 2018.
Presiding Officer, I did visit firefighters on the duty watch in Tonypandy earlier today, and I spoke to them about the work they were doing across Wales and also to those firefighters from the south Wales area who had attended the fire on Saddleworth moor. I visited the station alongside Andrew Morgan, the leader of Rhondda Cynon Taf council, and we did discuss some of the wild fires that have affected the Member's constituency. I spoke to the firefighters who had worked up at Llwydcoed and around the site at Bryn Pica who had been working extraordinarily hard to keep that under control. I think we all owe these people a great debt of gratitude.
Presiding Officer, we do work with the fire service, the police and other partners to tackle deliberate grass fires at source. This means preventing them from happening in the first place by deterring those who may be thinking about getting involved. This encompasses a wide range of programmes, from general awareness raising to anti-arson patrols in high-risk areas, and tailored interventions with those who have offended or are at risk of doing so. The most intensive of these that we have long supported has a reoffending rate of under 5 per cent.