Before I ask my question, with the Llywydd's permission, I'd like to add my words to the tributes to Paul Flynn. He was both a wonderful friend and mentor to me personally. And Paul was a passionate devolutionist, a champion for the Welsh language, and he was incredibly proud to see the setablishment of this Senedd. He loved Newport, and I know he was humbled that the people of Newport West kept faith with him and put their trust in him for over 30 years. And I'd also like to thank the Llywydd for allowing me to make a brief statement in tribute to him tomorrow. Our thoughts and love are with his wife, Sam, and his family. 

Moving on to my question: 

3. What is the Welsh Government doing to raise awareness of coercive control? OAQ53474

Well, can I start by thanking Jayne Bryant for your tribute to your very dear mentor and friend the inspirational Paul Flynn? I was fortunate to know and work and learn from Paul way back when I was a community worker in Pill, and he was a Labour councillor. We have heard many great tributes across this Chamber, and of course, our thoughts and deep sympathies are with his family. 

In response to your question, I launched the ‘This is not love. This is Control’ campaign in January. This is a year-long campaign raising awareness of coercive control, domestic abuse and sexual violence. We will also continue to support the public sector workforce to be able to identify coercive control through our national training framework.

Thank you, Deputy Minister. I very much welcome the Welsh Government's 'This is not love. This is Control' campaign, which was launched in Newport last month by yourself. And among those who spoke at the launch in the Riverfront Theatre was Luke Hart, whose mother and sister were murdered by his father following years of abuse. Luke and his brother Ryan have since started a project called CoCo Awareness. Educating people about the signs of abuse is crucial, as is ensuring that people experiencing abuse know that they will be heard and listened to when they seek help. Can the Deputy Minister outline how the Welsh Government campaign will work with survivors, the police and other organisations who have a crucially important role in raising awareness of coercive control and enabling people to report it?

I thank Jayne Bryant for that question. I was fortunate to be at the launch of this campaign, and to hear from Luke Hart from CoCo Awareness a very powerful account of his experience. And he and his brother have committed their lives now to raise awareness of coercive control, which led to the death of their mother and their sister. So, this campaign is important for us in taking forward our raising awareness of the treacherous, cumulative nature of coercive control. And it will encourage victims to recognise that what they are experiencing is coercive, controlling behaviour—it's wrong and abusive, and they can seek support. It's a year-long campaign, and, clearly, it will be delivered as a result of the engagement of all those partners who are part of our national strategy as a result of the violence against women legislation. And just finally to say on this point, very importantly in terms of the public sector, over 135,000 professionals have been trained through our national training framework for violence against women, domestic abuse and sexual violence.

Since December 2015, coercive control has been an offence, and it is recognised now as a form of domestic abuse. Perpetrators, though, are particularly adept at covering their tracks, at gaslighting and evading justice—and I know this only too well from my experience of working with Welsh Women's Aid. As it is an offence, it requires police officers to be well trained, in order to ensure that those experiencing it can receive justice. Research conducted by Plaid Cymru last year showed that many police officers in Wales had not received that training, and those figures showed that our biggest police force, South Wales Police, had the lowest proportion of trained officers in Wales to deal with coercive control. In the absence of direct responsibility and powers over the criminal justice system, what more can be done to raise awareness of this crime, especially amongst the police, to ensure that perpetrators—all of them—are brought to justice?

I thank Leanne Wood for that important question. Interestingly, yesterday, I was at the policing board, chaired by the First Minister, where chief constables and police and crime commissioners were talking about crime in their communities. And, in fact, domestic abuse and violence against women were raised by chief constables as an issue that they were very concerned about, in terms of their priorities. It is vital that the police force do undertake this training, which is now available under our national training framework, but also that we look at ways in which we can ensure that people understand that coercive control is a crime—as you say, a criminal offence—in England and Wales, a specific criminal offence as part of the Serious Crime Act 2015. And, in fact, there were over 9,000 offences of coercive control recorded by the police in 2018. So we have to ensure—and I saw that yesterday at the policing board—that the police are at the forefront of our campaign against coercive control.