Community Safety in Mid and West Wales

Part of Questions to the Deputy Minister and Chief Whip – in the Senedd at 2:50 pm on 26 March 2019.

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Photo of Jane Hutt Jane Hutt Labour 2:50, 26 March 2019

Helen Mary Jones also raises a very important question, which we discussed with the chief constables and police and crime commissioners at the policing board, which was chaired by the First Minister last month. In fact, Dafydd Llywelyn, the Dyfed-Powys police and crime commissioner, was very clear about the challenges in his area. I think it's a valuable opportunity for us again to see how we can share practice, share intelligence. Of course, this is crucial in terms of seeing this as a way in which we need to prevent the county lines taking hold of some of the most vulnerable young people in Wales.

I think it's important that we are liaising with Home Office officials, just in terms of importance of funding issues, and the fact that the Welsh Government also is continuing to provide funding for our community safety officers. Of course, 74 of those are located in your area, and they play a very important part in positive engagement with young people. So, this is a key issue not just for police, but also for the youth offending teams in terms of our work with young people across Wales, but particularly, from your question, in your area.