1. Will the Deputy Minister provide an update on the Welsh Government's equality policies? OAQ54081

As I set out in my oral statement last week, equality is a central priority for the Welsh Government. This is reflected, for example, in our gender equality review, the 'Nation of Sanctuary' plan and our framework for action on disability. 

Thank you for that, and I welcome the work that we're starting to see on this now. I hope you'll join with me in welcoming the news that Neath Port Talbot, in my region, is the first local authority to sign up to the FairPlay Employer scheme to tackle the gender pay gap. But we do have other pay gaps as well, including with the BAME community, and Welsh Government was not able to say recently how many BAME people work in the public sector in total in Wales, let alone how many BAME women. Your Government intends to improve representation within Welsh Government by 0.4 per cent by next year. I'm not sure how many actual people that is, but can you tell me how you'll be doing that in a way that not only improves BAME representation within the workforce, but improves the BAME gender pay gap as well? Perhaps you can also say something about how you and the Equality and Human Rights Commission might be collecting data that would help inform policy on that.

I thank Suzy Davies for those questions. In fact, I also welcome the fact that Neath Port Talbot council has achieved the Chwarae Teg fair employment award, and, of course, part of that is about tackling the gender pay gap. In terms of the opportunities that we have to focus, particularly I would say this week, on making sure that we have a diversity in our ministerial public appointments, we are producing a diversity strategy, which will consider action on how we can better raise awareness of public appointments and ensure that the process is as inclusive as possible. That has to be through an implementation plan; how we improve, for example, the diversity of assessment panels, support appointees, have shadowing arrangements. I'm mentoring, and I think probably, Suzy, you're mentoring also, candidates from the Women's Equality Network. We certainly know that this is a way forward towards those kinds of ministerial appointments, which I hope will particularly address black, Asian, minority ethnic candidates, but particularly women who, of course, can play such a key role. 

Now, in terms of the gender pay gap, it is a gender pay gap where we have to look at the intersectionality issues in relation to the pay gaps. It is, indeed, not just in terms of a gender pay gap; there's also a disability and a race pay gap as well, which we have to address. It is important that we see that this is a crucial part of the rapid review of Welsh Government gender and equality, and I very much welcome the Chwarae Teg 'State of the Nation 2019' report, where we addressed these issues. And we were at Butetown Community Centre to have a panel discussion on these issues, and the focus was on BAME women in Wales because of the research that they're undertaking on BAME women and their experiences in the Welsh labour market. So, all these are key to my agenda in terms of priorities in supporting and extending equality and human rights. 

Minister, the question you were just asked was specifically about data. You didn't address that point at all, so I'd really be grateful if you would answer that point about the collection of data. There are many types of discrimination within our society. We've got data on all forms of inequality, but there's very little information about the experiences of black, Asian and minority ethnic communities in this country. I was very glad to be able to speak at the new cross-party group on race equality at the beginning of the month, where the overwhelming message to us there was that we still have a long way to go before we achieve equality. We can have a strategy. We can have awareness. We can have as much mentoring as we like, but unless you are collecting data, you are not going to be able to identify and address those problems. So, if you could answer the question about data, Minister: what is this Government doing to fill the information void that we have on the ethnic minorities who have been part of our communities in this country for centuries?

Data is crucially important, in terms of the way that we measure our outcomes and seek to deliver on our objectives. Just in terms of some data, in terms of public appointments, for example, we are collating and verifying diversity appointments data for 2018-19, but we know from 2017-18 that 6.9 per cent of all ministerial appointments and re-appointments were declared to be from BAME groups, 51.9 per cent female, and 7.6 per cent disabled people. And I'm glad to be able to give that data today. But, clearly, it shows how far we've got to go particularly in terms of BAME groups, and that's why the data is important.

But, also, in terms of data, this is something where we've been working with the Office for National Statistics on to ensure that we can access data. We don't have all the data that we need in order to be informed, particularly in terms of the objectives that we have to address. And we need that in order to deliver on our public sector equality duty and Welsh-specific duties, which we are now, as I said last week, reassessing to see whether we can strengthen them, and data will be a crucial part of that. So I'm completely on side in terms of data.

And can I also welcome the fact that we now have a cross-party group on race equality? I think John Griffiths is chairing that, with Bethan co-chairing it. It is very important that that is a cross-party group that can hold me to account in terms of recognising that we have a long way to go. But we have an opportunity now, in terms of this focus on equality, to make real strides and to use the issues around the general duty that we have—the public sector duty—and the separate duties on race, disability and gender equality. And I know, at that Butetown meeting, we all talked about the importance of that intersectionality, and that approach, in terms of equality.