Part of Questions to the Deputy Minister and Chief Whip – in the Senedd at 2:38 pm on 8 October 2019.
I thank Alun Davies for that question, and also thank him for the work that he undertook, as my predecessor, leading up to the publication of those two blueprints on female offending and youth justice. I will be very happy to bring back an update to this Assembly in terms of the robust governance arrangements we're developing—that's both internally, in terms of Welsh Government policy, and our external stakeholders. We now have an overarching programme board for both blueprints. That met for the first time on 16 September. It does include senior officials, not just from Welsh Government—we are acting as chair—but the Ministry of Justice, the Youth Justice Board, the Home Office, and also representatives from police and crime commissioners. It is clear that we need to move forward on these blueprints and show that we can deliver, particularly, a youth justice system that treats children with fairness and respect and also an urgent solution to female offending in Wales. There are around 250 Welsh women currently held in prisons in England. We should not be in that situation. We want at least one residential women's centre in Wales. We've pressed for this, and I've been asking for an answer since April from Ministers. We now have a new Minister, and we will be meeting Robert Buckland shortly to discuss this and press further.