'devolved responsibilities of the Welsh Government and existing partnership arrangements in Wales make the delivery of probation services quite different to that in England. The legislative framework provides us with scope to develop alternative delivery arrangements which better reflect the criminal justice context in Wales…We will then consider whether the learning from these new arrangements is applicable to the system in England.'

Well, that was four months ago. You've mentioned the engagement you've had with a number of bodies, including HM probation and prisons; I wonder if you could add any meat to those bones in terms of the discussions around that agenda that you've subsequently had. 

I'm not going to go down the party political temptations you put in front of me in areas I'm not going to name, because it will digress, perhaps, from the answer you give me, and I'll try and focus on your focus on youth and female offenders.

You rightly say that, on youth offending, you believe early intervention and prevention can help divert young people away from the criminal justice system and how best to place a small cohort of young people in custody and help those young people recover and settle into their communities. Well, the consultation document also spoke about increasing integration across prisons and probation in Wales with real input from the third sector, utilising people capital. Following that event, in fact, quite recently, I went out with the National Probation Service to meet Eagle House Youth Development, a community interest company in Bangor, to discuss their work with young people involved with or at risk of committing crime. They were picked, for example, by the jobcentre for their stand at the Royal Welsh Show this year as the lead third sector body that they were working with in helping young people who perhaps fell into those potential characteristics or might be at risk in the future. So, how will you engage with organisations such as Eagle House?

Also, last week, as you might be aware—although sadly you didn't attend—I hosted the launch of the Clean Slate Cymru toolkit at an event celebrating the Clean Slate Cymru project in the Pierhead, with Construction Youth Trust Cymru, the Construction Industry Training Board, and construction company BAM Nuttall, celebrating a pan-Wales project to support people with convictions into construction employment, and the launch of a guide on how the construction industry can engage with ex-offenders in prisons and communities across Wales and achieve social value by training ex-offenders, finding employment in the construction sector, work placements, skills training and much else besides. Again, have you engaged, or will you be looking to engage with these leading projects that are already making a difference and have brought together the third sector, the private sector and some Government agencies who were present on this agenda?

I will conclude by referring to your reference, quite rightly, to women sent to prison, often for short sentences, and the need to develop services to support women to avoid custody and also prioritise short sentences being outside a prison environment, but also what happens when people are placed in the current female prison estate in Wales. What engagement, therefore, have you had with the UK Government since its announcement that, instead of five community prisons for women in England and Wales, they'll trial five residential centres to help women offenders with issues such as finding work, substance misuse and so on, where those on community sentences, as recognised clearly by UK Government as well as yourself, are less likely to commit further crimes than those who've served short jail terms, with a view to having one of those centres in Wales, but also accessible within Wales? Because, clearly, people living in north-east Wales would have difficulty if the centre was located in Swansea or Cardiff, and vice versa. 

Finally, in that context, as you know, in north Wales, and for much of Wales, female offenders who go to prison are sent to Styal. I only live 40-odd miles from Styal, so, for them, it's more accessible than somewhere in mid Wales or south Wales. But what actions have you undertaken, or are you undertaking, where women offenders, particularly Welsh-speaking women offenders, are in the English estate, to ensure that they get the appropriate support within the prison estate to communicate and support them on release?