Part of 1. Questions to the First Minister – in the Senedd at 2:15 pm on 22 October 2019.
I thank you for that answer, but recent figures obtained from the Home Office have shown a 29 per cent increase in hate crime across England and Wales, and the highest increase is seen in transgender and disability hate crimes. We've also witnessed the rhetoric and language that's been witnessed being used by leading political figures very recently, and, in my opinion, that has only added fuel to the fire, particularly when it comes to racially motivated and religious hate crime. Hate crime based on an individual's race is accounting for three quarters of all hate crime that is reported, and I was horrified, and I'm sure that most people in this Chamber would be, to witness the racial abuse experienced by a number of England football players in Bulgaria recently, and also on Saturday when Haringey's goalkeeper was spat at and bottles were thrown at him, resulting in, quite rightly, those players walking off the field. But the real concern here, when you view some of those pictures, is that it's young people who are the perpetrators of these acts, and the problem with that is we're talking about the next generation coming through. So, First Minister, I ask what assessment the Welsh Government has made about the recent Home Office stats regarding the worrying increases, and whether you've had any conversations whatsoever with the Football Association of Wales and particularly Show Racism the Red Card?