6. What action is the Welsh Government taking to tackle hate crime? OAQ54609

I thank Joyce Watson for that. The Welsh Government works hard, with others, to prevent hate crimes, support victims and promote community cohesion. In recognition of the tensions and divisions that have arisen since the EU referendum, we have utilised the EU transition fund to bolster our work significantly in this area.

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?

I thank the Member for the question and for the work that she has done so consistently over the years in this area, and for the part she has played in making sure that this Assembly will be debating this matter on the floor here tomorrow afternoon. If I think of the Home Office figures, then I think there are four things that I draw from them immediately, Llywydd. The first is that Wales is not immune to hate crime and the horrors that it brings, and we should never think that, somehow, these things don't happen here—they do—and, secondly, that behind the figures lies a combination of better reporting and recording as well as real increases in instances. We have had a policy in Wales since 2014 of driving up reporting in this area, of persuading people to have confidence to come forward to the police, and then working with the police to make sure that those reports are properly recorded and reported. So, there is something, I hope, in these figures that demonstrates that people are more willing to come forward and more willing to take these things seriously. But as well as that, there is a real rise in incidents in these figures too.

I think the third thing that I learned from the figures is that hate crime happens across the whole range of targets; 68 per cent of hate crime is race hate crime, but as Joyce Watson said, over 400 disability hate crimes were recorded in Wales last year. I find myself just baffled by it—how anybody could think that someone who already has to deal with the issues of disability becomes a victim of crime because of the disability that they suffer. And an 88 per cent increase, the largest increase of all, as Joyce Watson said, in transgender hate crime.

I think the fourth point that I draw from it, Llywydd, is the importance of the investment that we make in Wales in resisting hate crime—the extra money we've put into the national hate crime report and support centre, the additional investment in the hate crime minority communities grant, the community cohesion grant that we provide through the Welsh Government, supported across the Chamber here, I know. All of these things help to make a difference, and it is by working with others, whether that is Show Racism the Red Card or whether it is formal bodies like the Football Association of Wales, that we can do what we can to row back the hateful presence of hate crime in Wales as elsewhere.