I rise to talk about the subject of hate crime, and when people think about hate crime, very often, they will think about hate crime in racial terms and they're right to do that, because in 2018-19, 68 per cent of all hate crime was racially motivated across Wales, and across all crimes. And I do commend the work that's been done to give confidence to people to come forward, and that's all 3,932 of them who have come forward. But there are other hate crimes, and they are: sexual orientation, religious and transgender. But I want to focus today on disability hate crime.

The Welsh Government has a framework for action that was launched in 2014, and it looks at crimes under the Equality Act of 2010, and their protected characteristics. I find it somewhat alarming—and I hope that everybody will share my alarm—that there were 120 hate crimes reported by disabled victims. And that is really the most shocking for me, when you're talking about people, who already have huge challenges in life just to get through their daily life, being picked on by able-bodied people, just because they don't look like them. So, there's a very clear thread, and Jenny did very well to describe that, because what hate crime really is all about is, 'You are not one of us'. It's about marginalising people. It's about putting them in a box so that they look different to you, and we must recognise that reality, because without recognising that reality, we're never really going to come through and out the other side.

So, that is why I am pleased that the Welsh Government has invested £350,000 of funding into schools for the forthcoming year, and that will be delivered by the WLGA in anti-bullying guidance for schools. Because I think our best hope going forward—and sometimes, our only hope going forward—is for young people to adopt and recognise that difference isn't something to be attacked; that it's something to be embraced—that we are all different, thank goodness, and that we share a collective humanity. That is who we really are, and that is what we really want to recognise. And I think teaching children through this programme that they can challenge misinformation and they can recognise hate speeches, will certainly help those young people to grow up and to be balanced individuals—[Interruption.] In a minute. But I think it's critical that people who do report it—and I'm talking here about young people, particularly when we're talking about schoolchildren—that they are picked up and offered some counselling, because of the trauma that they've gone through, so that they, themselves, can come through that. And I think that the hate crime criminal justice board that's been set up will enable the work between the partners, including Welsh police forces, but all other agencies as well, so that we can actually take forward and recognise all aspects of hate crime. Thank you.