4. What assessment has the First Minister made of the effectiveness of the Welsh Government’s strategy to tackle domestic violence and abuse? OAQ55083

I thank the Member for that question. The annual report of the national advisers on domestic violence and abuse concluded that there is still much more to do to improve the lives of those at risk, but that the Act placed on the statute book by this Senedd is one of the greatest achievements of devolution and leads the rest of the United Kingdom.

Yes, I agree with that, but last Thursday I attended the launch of the Welsh Government and New Pathways' This is Sexual Abuse campaign, where Jane Hutt, Minister with responsibility, actually launched that campaign. And it was great to be in a room where everyone was committed to working together to bring an end to the silence around sexual abuse for men, women and children, regardless of their age. I'd personally like to thank the survivors who bravely shared their stories with us at that event. The aim of that campaign is to help people recognise the signs of sexual abuse and to encourage them to seek the help that they need if they are experiencing any form of abuse. First Minister, what help is Welsh Government giving to those organisations that will be supporting survivors who may choose, as a consequence of that excellent session last Thursday, to now come forward and seek help?

Llywydd, can I thank Joyce Watson for that and for the consistent way, over so many years, that she herself has spoken up on these issues here in the Chamber? And she's right: it's genuinely humbling to be at an event when survivors of domestic violence and abuse and other forms of abuse in the home tell their stories, and do it because of their determination to encourage others to have the courage to do the same thing, and the 'ask and act' approach that I referred to in my answer to Paul Davies is very much part of that.

To just recap a couple of the things I said earlier, Llywydd: the Welsh Government has found the resources to train 167,500 workers in the techniques required by the Act. We fund the Live Fear Free helpline to the tune of £455,000 every year. In the quarter to December, there were over 8,000 incoming calls to that helpline, which, I think, is at least some reflection of the success that campaigns last year have had, and workers on the helpline themselves made nearly 2,000 calls to follow up on issues that people phoning into the helpline had raised with them, to get them the help that Paul Davies referred to earlier.

In this financial year, we will provide over £200,000 to the Welsh sexual violence service, including specialist training for staff and direct support to victims of sexual violence, to make sure that the people who came to the event that Joyce Watson referred to—and help us to make sure that the voice of survivors is always there, shaping the work that we do, to make sure that that goes on being supported here in Wales.

We've heard reference to last November's Wales Audit Office report on progress in implementing the Violence against Women, Domestic Abuse and Sexual Violence (Wales) Act 2015, which highlighted gaps in engagement with specialist services and survivors in the implementation of the Act. According to the crime survey of England and Wales to March of last year—and there will new figures next month—an estimated 1.6 million women and 786,000 men experienced emotional, financial and physical abuse, or a mixture of all three, in a domestic context. And, of course, the vast majority of the victims and survivors of partner or ex-partner abuse were women, and Welsh Women's Aid has also noted that their members who work with survivors of sexual violence have told them that survivors of sexual abuse are not receiving the equivalent priority by commissioners and public services as survivors of domestic abuse. How do you therefore respond to their calls, and the calls of other experts working in this field, for that deficit to be addressed so that, for example, the housing support grant commissioning covers all forms of violence against women, domestic abuse and sexual violence, rather than the default assumption focusing on domestic abuse?

Well, Llywydd, I've set out a series of ways in which the Welsh Government is responding to that report and supporting public services in Wales in the work that they do. I'll put it to the Member that another way in which he and his party could help in this agenda would be to have supported last week the Thomas commission report into justice in Wales. Because some of the gaps that appear in public services in responding to women who report sexual violence are in the way that the police and the criminal justice system respond to those complaints, and the Thomas commission report highlights that and suggests that we would be able to make a more coherent set of services available if those decisions were here in the hands of this elected Senedd. I agree with that, and it would have been helpful if his party had agreed with that last week as well.