Diolch, Dirprwy Lywydd. I'm pleased to lead this important debate on tackling hate crime to outline the interventions we've put in place, as well as to speak up against hate, which is the powerful message of the Jo Cox campaign. We can't ignore the prevalence of divisive narratives in the media as well as political discourse, both in the UK and across the world, so it is incumbent upon us as elected representatives to state categorically that there is no place for hate in Wales, and that's what the motion today proposes. 

Prevention, of course, is key to tackling hate crime in Wales, and therefore the focus of much of our work. Our community cohesion programme forms an integral part of our prevention work, delivering projects focused on creating a diverse and united nation by fostering environments where we can learn from each other, as well as live and work together in Wales. Living in communities where people are safe and welcome benefits everybody. Government funding can help communities thrive and should not have to be spent tackling unacceptable hate-fuelled behaviour.

We've invested an additional £1.52 million of funding into the community cohesion programme to expand cohesion teams across Wales, and over the past few months their front-line engagement with communities, including the delivery of projects to encourage integration, have been crucial in fostering good relations and supporting those affected by prejudice. We are providing £480,000 of funding over two years through our hate crime minority communities grant, and the grant is funding third sector organisations supporting ethnic minority and religious communities affected by hate crime.

We were in the process of awarding the funding at the time of the last debate, so I will provide a brief overview of the projects that are now running across Wales: Show Racism the Red Card Cymru, providing hate crime training to staff and students for all further education colleges in Wales; Women Connect First, which is delivering restorative justice training and hate crime awareness-raising sessions in south-east Wales; BAWSO, which is training community advocates in north Wales to help community members recognise hate incidents and encourage reporting; Ethnic Minorities and Youth Support Team Wales is developing a train the trainer project around hate crime for schoolchildren, teachers and teaching assistants with front-line health and public sector staff in south-west and mid Wales; NWREN, the north Wales race equality network, is providing hate crime awareness and equality legislation training to local authority education directors, senior leadership teams in schools and teaching staff across north and mid Wales; Race Equality First is delivering activities in schools, and accredited training, including prisoner rehabilitation and outreach sessions in the community across south-east Wales; Race Council Cymru is delivering hate crime awareness-raising sessions through ethnic minority communities, and promoting wider awareness of rights and equality in north and south-west Wales; and the Welsh Refugee Council is training refugee and asylum seeker hate crime ambassadors to deliver hate crime awareness sessions across Wales. 

These projects are in their early stages, but we've already seen good progress. By using experienced and well-established connections of these organisations, we can work with partners at the grass-roots community level and provide support directly to those who need it. The long-term aim of our £350,000 hate crime in schools project—£350,000, that is, of funding—led by the Welsh Local Government Association is raising awareness through education to help children and young people learn about the strengths and benefits of living and learning together in diverse communities. The project is being delivered in over 100 schools across Wales, and will equip pupils with critical thinking skills to enable them to identify misinformation and hateful narratives. 

We recognise that promoting positive communications has a crucial role in hate crime prevention work, in particular reinforcing the message that hate is not welcome in Wales. We are on course to launch a multi-media, pan-Wales, anti-hate crime campaign this autumn, engaging with partners, including victims. This is progressing well, and we've got good feedback that supports the creation of this campaign, which encourages the reporting of hate crime and increases the public understanding of hate crime. 

Further to the work I've already outlined on working to support ethnic minority communities, we are also working with All Wales People First to fund a series of workshops with local networks of adults with learning disabilities across all areas of Wales. Evidence suggests that hate crime against people with learning disabilities is often misunderstood and largely unreported, and this work seeks to improve our knowledge, allowing us to gain an understanding of the scale and nature of this form of hate crime, and to help identify ways to tackle it. These are seldom heard voices, but we want to ensure they feed into the development of the forthcoming campaign and future hate crime policy.

Over the last few months, we've worked with a range of partners to improve anti-hate messaging. We funded the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust to deliver activities and awareness raising in Wales, and this included the development of the Stand Together website and participation in the 75 Memorial Flames art project currently on display on the Hayes in Cardiff. We're working to expand the reach of the open and global Wales communication campaign, developed by south-east Wales local authorities and led by Cardiff Council. They're developing a community cohesion and anti-hate crime campaign, built around the message that we are a welcoming and global nation. Our investment will ensure the campaign is seen across Wales.

Our last debate came a week after the publication of the 2018-19 hate crime statistics for England and Wales. The increased recording of hate crime reflects the growing negative discourse in wider society. However, we should also recognise the effort that we're putting in with our partners to encourage victims to report incidents of hate crime.

We are trying to prevent and tackle hate crime, and victims are at the heart of our response. So, last year, I announced an additional £360,000 of funding for the next two years for the national hate crime report and support centre, run by Victim Support Cymru. And this additional money, on top of annual funding, will increase the centre's support and advocacy to victims of hate crime. 

We don't hold all the levers to address the wider issues, and we're aware of the frustrations in regard to hate crime legislation in the UK. Hate crime laws in the UK have developed in several phases over recent decades, and this has led to the situation where the five protected characteristics in hate crime legislation—race, religion, sexual orientation, transgender identity and disability—are not dealt with in a consistent way. And this is something where the Law Commission is exploring this matter as part of a review into hate crimes in the UK.

I just want to conclude that February was LGBT+ history month, when we had the opportunity here in the Senedd to celebrate the contributions the LGBT+ communities have made to Welsh life and culture. We're committed to protecting and supporting victims of LGBT+ hate crime, and working with our partners to encourage those members of our community to report hate crime.

So, we're grateful to all our partners for their support and expertise on this area of work. I thank the regional community cohesion teams who play a vital role in working with local government, communities and the third sector to foster cohesion. In support of the three amendments tabled today, I hope you will agree that this is a chance for us to unite, to agree and support the breadth of work that's been undertaken in relation to hate crime, demonstrating this is a continuing high priority that we place on ensuring victims have confidence to report, receive the care and support they need, and seek to prevent the amount of hate crime incidents in the future.