Part of 1. Questions to the First Minister – in the Senedd at 1:49 pm on 12 January 2021.
Well, Llywydd, I definitely agree that more could and should be done. Lots of that will be represented in the race equality action plan, which the Welsh Government will publish in just a few weeks' time. That race equality action plan has been informed by the report into the structural causes of racism here in Wales, which has already been commissioned and has already reported. So, that report was chaired and produced by Professor Emmanuel Ogbonna, a distinguished academic and member of the black community here in Wales. It makes for sobering reading, as the Member I'm sure would agree, and there's no place where it is more shocking than in the figures to which Adam Price has referred this afternoon in the criminal justice system. The level of discrimination faced by black people in the wider criminal justice system absolutely has to be grasped and remedied. It's one of the reasons why taking forward the proposals of the Thomas commission is so important, because it would give us opportunities we don't have now to be able directly to deal with some of the points that the Member has quite rightly raised this afternoon.
On his final question about a report into structural racism here in Wales, that report has been commissioned and that report is available, and it has formed the basis of the race equality action plan. I'm very grateful indeed to Professor Ogbonna for his continued engagement in the production of that plan, which will use all the levers available to us here through our devolved powers to address the pernicious impacts to which the leader of Plaid Cymru has referred in his questions this afternoon.