4. What discussions has the Counsel General had with the Deputy Minister and Chief Whip regarding how the Welsh Government will protect women and minorities from hate crime following Brexit? OAQ53207

I've had a preliminary discussion about these issues with the Deputy Minister and Chief Whip, and will be meeting her again next week to consider them in more detail. We are already delivering our tackling hate crime programme and expanding our community cohesion work to seek to mitigate any rise in hate crime. 

It was reported towards the end of last year that recorded hate crime in Wales and England rose by 17 per cent to 94,000 in the 12 months to March of last year. The Home Office say improvements in the way that crime is recorded could partly account for the large increase that has been evident for the last five years, but they acknowledge that there was a spike in the immediate aftermath of the EU referendum. Now, I've got no doubt in my mind and from my own experience that society has become less friendly for women and minorities since that referendum campaign, and this is reflected in social media in particular. Will your Government send out a strong message condemning such hate crimes, and ensure that victims know what, if any, support services are available to them? And would you also be prepared to open up dialogue with the social media companies to ensure that swift action is taken to shut down online hate crimes?    

I thank the Member for that question, and I recognise the point that she made in relation to the spike in hate crime, which we've discussed in this Chamber before, and it's absolutely shocking that that should arise in the context of the debates that we are having now. I absolutely will give the assurance that she asks for that we'll send a very clear signal that there is no place for hate crime against any of our communities here in Wales. I know that she has an event coming up in the Senedd in a few days' time, I believe, from which I'm sure that signal will also be sent out. 

As part of the preparedness work in relation to Brexit, we have expanded the community cohesion programme and funded a EU citizens' rights project, which will work together with the third sector and local government to ensure that there are appropriate services, and also stepped-up engagement with our all-Wales black, Asian, minority ethnic engagement programme, through the equality and inclusion funding stream.  

She will also know, of course, of the hate crime inspection report that came out recently by Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire and Rescue Services, which highlighted some particularly good practice here in Wales, in particular in the Gwent area. 

Counsel General, during a debate on the Equality, Local Government and Communities Committee's report into its post-legislative scrutiny work on the Violence against Women, Domestic Abuse and Sexual Violence (Wales) Act 2015, a number of Members spoke out saying that healthy relationships should be part of the curriculum, with the now Deputy Minister for social services saying, 

'that it’s absolutely key that we tackle attitudes to healthy relationships early on in a child’s education…And the sooner we try to provide this on healthy relationships, the better.'

And I think the same observations can be made on hate crime in all its forms. Do you think, then, that legislation might be necessary to ensure a place for this on the curriculum, or do you think that guidance and a simple policy will be sufficient to make absolutely certain we get this? 

We always need to be mindful of the best way of achieving these objectives. One of the issues that seems to me to be important is that we retain the level of flexibility to be able to respond to emerging dimensions in hate crime. It is unfortunately one of those areas that seems to find new outlets in different contexts, as Leanne Wood's question indicated. Social media has provided a whole new platform, hasn't it, for individuals to be able to express views that we would find abhorrent in this Chamber? And it's incumbent on us all, I think, to find ways of ensuring that that is eradicated, and educating children and young people in responsible means of being online and also in the nature of relationships, both community relationships and personal relationships, is an important part of that.

In my opinion, there's no doubt that the Brexit campaign normalised bigotry and emboldened racists, and in the years to come, that awful poster and shameful moments like the UK Minister Penny Mordaunt barefacedly lying to the country on breakfast tv about the UK not having a veto over Turkey's accession will rightly be judged as stains on our politics. So, we have a lot of healing to do. So, whatever happens or doesn't happen in the very near future, do you see any potential, Minister, within the European transition fund, to support action to tackle hate crime, especially if there's a 'no deal' Brexit? Also, there are fears that a 'no deal' Brexit would lead to an escalation, an entrenchment, within our communities, which is already existing since those terrible campaigns run by people who were both racist and bigots.

Well, I thank the Member for that question. She and I have discussed the nature of some of the posters and communications that other parties were advocating during the referendum itself as being a reason why this culture shift has developed.

Certainly, the European transition fund is being deployed to make the sorts of funding investment decisions that she is referring to in her question, and I think the community cohesion programme in particular has benefited from an expansion as a result of that. We are very mindful that one of the issues we need to be very clear about is ensuring that community cohesion, which has always been a priority for us as a Government, continues to be supported, and our regional community cohesion network is a key means for doing that.