5. What discussions has the Counsel General had with law officers in the UK Government regarding the introduction of legal measures to tackle rural crime? OQ56448

We take rural crime very seriously, which is why we established the Wales wildlife and rural crime group. Whilst policing, of course, is sadly not a devolved matter, we will continue to work with the UK Government and the Welsh police forces to ensure that public safety needs are met right across Wales.

Thank you. From previous scrutiny that I've laid before you, you will be aware of my view that the Welsh Government certainly does have a role to play in tackling rural crime. I would like to highlight an article in a recent Farmers Guardian publication. The headline reads:

'Organised gangs target farm quad bikes'.

So, we're not talking about the odd quad bike being stolen, but we're talking now about organised gangs, and that is far more ramped up in terms of criminal behaviour. Data from NFU Mutual shows that thefts are continuing to rise year on year, up from 1.8 million in 2015 to 2.6 million in just three years. Detective Constable Chris Piggott, rural vehicle crime intelligence officer at the National Vehicle Crime Intelligence Service, has advised that several gangs now seem to be moving across force borders and that, at the moment, most of Wales is being targeted. Lesley Griffiths MS recently sent me a letter explaining that she is in correspondence with Lord Goldsmith, the north Wales rural crime team and DEFRA colleagues. I welcome that, but I'm just wondering whether you've had more discussions with the Minister about supporting the calls for the formation of a national rural crime taskforce for Wales. Will you support such a proposal, to bring Welsh stakeholders together to work on a suitable Welsh Government response so as to protect our rural communities and, of course, so as to create a platform from which key correspondence can be sent from Wales to the UK Government and that we can have better collaborative working on rural crime, going forward? Thank you.

I thank the Member for raising this matter again. She has, of course, as she mentioned in the question, raised it before with me, and it's obviously a very, very important matter both in her constituency and right across Wales. I think there is very good evidence of joint working between the relevant agencies in Wales, which I do think—and I know she would acknowledge this—has been regarded elsewhere as best practice. The point she makes in particular around vehicle theft, I think, is very, very important. It's certainly one of the priorities in terms of the current range, unfortunately, of rural and wildlife crime in Wales. This, principally, of course, is a matter for the Minister in the relevant portfolio, and I'm aware that she is currently considering a specific proposal to increase the focus on rural and wildlife crime in Wales, and we can expect an announcement from her on that matter in the coming days.

Helen Mary Jones.

Apologies, Llywydd, I thought we'd withdrawn that request. I do apologise.

Okay. That's fine.

No problem.

Okay, that concludes that question session.