The Terror Attack in London

Part of 3. Topical Questions – in the Senedd at 3:17 pm on 4 December 2019.

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Photo of Leanne Wood Leanne Wood Plaid Cymru 3:17, 4 December 2019

I want to start by paying tribute to the two young people murdered on London Bridge last week, Saskia Jones and Jack Merritt, and to the values that they stood for. The courageous words of Jack Merritt's father were, in the circumstances, inspirational. And I'm sure that I speak for all Members here and others throughout Wales when I say that we feel for the family and close friends, and that all of us will want to do what we can to reduce the likelihood of a tragedy like this repeating itself.

I've a number of questions for our Government. The first is a matter that falls within the devolution settlement, and that's education. Can you tell us what initiatives are in place to combat far-right extremism in all its forms, especially where violence is a risk? How is supremacist ideology, which puts people above those that they 'other', whether that's in terms of skin colour, nationality, religion or anything else, being challenged within our education system? How are teachers and youth workers trained to ensure that this sensitive and difficult work is done? How are these supremacist ideologies being challenged within the prison education system, for both those people serving terror-related offences within Welsh prisons and for those Welsh prisoners serving their sentences in England?

I'd also like to know what representations are being made to your counterparts in Westminster about the cuts to the National Probation Service and the failures in assessment and monitoring of former inmates released on licence that this latest terror incident has exposed. Are these failures related to austerity and privatisation?

I very much hope that you are already asking these questions and that you are doing all that you can to realise the ongoing demand for the criminal justice system to be devolved to Wales as quickly as possible, so that we can create a system focused on preventing these horrific, violent and ideology-driven incidents, and in keeping people in all of our communities safe.