5. What steps is the Welsh Government taking to tackle racism in sport? OQ56119

Racism in any form has no place in Wales—direct or indirect. A great deal of ground still has to be made up at all levels before sport in Wales fully reflects and celebrates the diversity of our nation.

Thank you, First Minister. Over the Christmas period, Dragons Rugby winger Ashton Hewitt was subjected to racial abuse on social media. Sadly, this is not an isolated event, and it was only one in a long line of posts that Ashton has received because he's a black player. It's not just confined to one person or sport. Last year, Ashton used his platform to call out racial abuse and raise awareness of racism. Ashton has praised the support he's had from his club—the Dragons—and the Welsh Rugby Players Association, but he has said:

'It was just important for me to highlight that it does happen in my sport. It's not perfect and it's important that people acknowledge and take action.'

Much of the abuse on social media comes from anonymous accounts. While Ashton has said he would like to have a constructive conversation with the person who racially abused him, social media anonymity is a problem with obvious solutions. Many apps and advertising require proof of identification to create an account; similar checks could easily be made on social media platforms. Will the First Minister join me in commending Ashton Hewitt for speaking out about racism in sport, and look at how we can support him and others to put an end to all racism? And will the First Minister use his voice in urging the social media giants to strengthen their regulations around anonymous accounts, so that there's nowhere for people to hide? 

I thank Jayne Bryant for that, and of course I'm very keen to join her in commending the way in which Mr Hewitt responded to the dreadful abuse that he received. I thought his response was remarkable, really. It was dignified and it was designed to try to put right the wrongs that had been carried out. I absolutely commend him for that. 

The general point that Jayne Bryant makes is a really important one. As I understand it, the account of the person who abused Mr Hewitt has now been cancelled. But, we've seen, not just in this instance—surely we saw it across the Atlantic in the United States recently—the harm that is done when people who abuse social media platforms go unchallenged. And I think, maybe, in some ways, we are all a bit inclined to dismiss that stuff as somehow just belonging to a fringe element, and we shouldn't get too worked up about it all. But I think the events that we saw in the United States demonstrate just how insidious that far-right occupation of social media has become, and it's here in Wales as well. It spreads the myths about coronavirus, it encourages people to believe that people who are providing public services to assist them are somehow never to be trusted and always to be suspected.

I think there is more—definitely more—that the platforms themselves need to do to challenge disinformation, to challenge people who seek to pursue their pernicious views in ways that the internet, which in other ways is such a blessing and a boon—the way it has opened up a space for people who wish to use it for entirely illegitimate and destructive purposes. And I agree with what the Member said about the need to urge them to do more to make sure that that does not happen.

Happy new year, First Minister. The Black Lives Matter protest and incidents like that just raised by Jayne Bryant have encouraged governments at all levels now to look at the inequalities facing BAME people in all aspects of life, and sport has had a particularly high profile due to sportsmen like Sir Lewis Hamilton and all the premiership football teams still taking the knee. Campaigners have made the point, though, that nothing will change unless there is greater representation of BAME people in the higher echelons of sporting organisations. In football, for example, a quarter of Premier League football players are black, however there are only six managers from a BAME background in the professional game, and just one director of football. In 2003, in the National Football League in America, they brought in the Rooney rule to address the under-representation of African American coaches in American football, by which at least one black candidate is on the shortlist for interview when a manager's job becomes vacant. What discussions has the Welsh Government had with sports councils, sports organisations, clubs and national governing bodies to review representation and pathways for black, Asian and minority ethnic people in Wales?

I thank Laura Anne Jones for her new year greeting, but also for shining a light on this really important area and for some of the ideas that she has explored. We are absolutely not immune from this difficulty here in Wales. There are no black people on any of the 17 sporting boards that were recently investigated, and that includes the Welsh Rugby Unio and the Football Association of Wales. Nine out of 17 Welsh sports organisations have no BAME staff members and 10 out of 17 Welsh sports organisations have no BAME board members. These are not acceptable figures, Llywydd, they're absolutely not, and the Rooney rule is one of the ways in which some of that can be addressed.

I do want to say that Sport Wales is very actively trying to address this itself. The Tell Your Story and Our Stories Matter campaigns are both designed to make sure that the experience of black people in sport in Wales is properly understood and recognised, but that needs to be true of the very top of the sporting world as well. At board level, we need to see the experience of black sportsmen and women properly represented. The Welsh Government is committed to that, our race equality action plan will help us with that, and there are other ways, Llywydd, as well.

The audit of commemoration in Wales, which we instituted earlier in the autumn, identified a number of black rugby league players who were forced to leave Wales because of discrimination in the union code. It is remarkable to me that Billy Boston, who I believe is still alive, has a statue to him in Wigan and a statue to him in Wembley, but no statue to him at all here in Wales, and I commend the actions that Cardiff council is taking to try to put that right. So, I thank the Member for raising the points that she did, because they are very important and there is a really serious agenda that sport in Wales is grappling with and needs to make proper progress in resolving.