I welcome the reversal of the privatisation of the probation service. This money-making venture was widely criticised and warned against in the first place. But the private sector will still be part of the probation service; only 80 per cent of the probation work will be removed from privatisation. Now, Napo have raised concerns that the provision of unpaid work and accredited programmes still fall under the privatised system, and I share their concerns about that. Napo have said:

'We are obviously disappointed that there is an intention for some probation work to remain in the private sector. Napo will continue to campaign to ensure that all of these services and our members who provide them, are eventually transferred back into the public sector and that we will step up our efforts to secure pay parity for all probation staff.'

Would the Minister agree with me that devolving responsibility for criminal justice would allow us to take this issue out of the Tories' hands for good and operate a system that properly reduces offending as well as protecting communities from harmful offenders? And does she also agree that unpaid work and group work should be part of a united public probation service?

I'm pleased to see that the consideration for a Welsh women's prison is ruled out. Instead, a call for more community-based approaches is prominent right across the sector. The charity Women in Prison says that prison for women reinforces trauma, causes mental health issues and increases the risk of self-harm, whilst the Prison Reform Trust say that women released from prison are more likely to reoffend than those who are serving community sentences. Peter Clarke, HM Chief Inspector of Prisons, says that distance from home and family is more acute for women prisoners and, therefore, a smaller community-based facility or facilities could produce better outcomes.

Clearly, there's a very strong case for new residential centres for women offenders in Wales. The Government's female offender strategy has called for 10 women's centres but for only one of those to be in Wales, and the Welsh Affairs Committee, to which my colleagues Liz Saville Roberts and Ben Lake contributed, have recommended that two are needed in Wales—one in the north and one in the south. Having just one centre in Wales wouldn't be good enough. There has to be provision at both ends of the country to mitigate the current issues that we have with distance.

So, what efforts are you making with the UK Government to emphasise the Welsh Affairs Committee's recommendation that at least two centres are located in Wales, and what can you do about the problem that was raised with me last week by one of the women offenders that our committee met in Eastwood Park Prison as part of an inquiry that we're doing, where the lack of approved premises for women means that some prisoners can't be released on tag, whereas others with a home address can? What can you do about approved premises for women offenders?

Whilst it's important to consider where and how best to deal with women offenders, it's also important to move the focus of the debate on to how we best tackle the underlying issues that cause offending. More needs to be done to take seriously the severe societal, family and personal consequences of placing women into prison, but, further to this, more needs to be done to tackle seriously the consequences and impact of a custodial sentence after release, and this goes for everyone, not just women prisoners.

Offenders are amongst the most vulnerable people in our society, and substance misuse, mental health problems, homelessness and reoffending are all by-products of entering the prison system unless we have schemes in place to support those people. Decent counselling for adverse childhood experiences is needed in order to combat traumatic effects on the family, health services in and out of prison are needed to combat addiction and mental health issues, and proper housing and prioritisation is needed to combat homelessness. So, I wonder if you can tell us, then, what can be done to tackle adverse childhood experiences, first of all when they happen in childhood, and, secondly, what can be done to help adult survivors of ACEs. Dealing with ACEs will undoubtedly reduce crime. Does the Minister agree with me on that point?