Thank you very much, Llywydd, and may I first of all extend my congratulations to you once again, First Minister, on your election, and also to everyone in this Senedd? As the only Member of the Liberal Democrats, I look forward to working with you all. I'll ask the question in English. 

4. What action will the Welsh Government take to end violence against women and girls, particularly within black, Asian and minority ethnic communities? OQ56568

Thank you very much to Jane Dodds for what she said at the beginning, and huge congratulations to you, of course, as well, for asking your first question here at the Senedd this afternoon.

Llywydd, this year, the violence against women, domestic abuse and sexual violence revenue budget has received an uplift of more than 8 per cent compared to the year before the pandemic. Over £0.5 million of this funding is directed towards strategic planning and direct delivery of activity for black, Asian and minority ethnic victims and survivors.

Thank you very much for that answer.

Can I just follow that through with a focus on what's been happening in this COVID time? We all know that there's been a significant increase in the need for refuge places, in the need for services, and better, more focused responses to those women and children who are coming forward after these lockdown periods. I'm particularly interested to hear what issues and services will be targeted into rural areas, where we know that there are particular shortages of those effective responses and services. Thank you. Diolch yn fawr iawn.

Diolch yn fawr. In terms of the particular issues that have come to the surface during the pandemic period and that affect black, Asian and minority ethnic communities in the way that Jane Dodds has asked, they're the ones that will be sadly familiar on the floor of the Senedd and that my colleague Joyce Watson has often taken a lead in drawing to our attention: forced marriage, female genital mutilation, honour-based violence and abuse. All of those are matters that have been discussed at the all-Wales leadership group that the Welsh Government jointly chairs, set up to respond to all three forms of abuse, and a forum shared amongst others by BAWSO and the Crown Prosecution Service. What we have focused on in recent times is on the training of front-line staff, to make sure that they are able to recognise and to respond to these sorts of circumstances. Over 650 people were trained in the first quarter of this year, Llywydd, in the voluntary and the statutory sectors—specialist training to understand, identify and respond to instances of honour-based violence. And then because—and this is particularly true in the way that Jane Dodds said in rural areas—we have to rely on a wider range of individuals who may come into contact with people who suffer from these forms of abuse, the VAWDASV national training programme has been focusing on that wider range of workers: delivery drivers, postal workers, community pharmacists, contact tracers—people who are there in communities right across Wales and who are alerted to the risks that some of our fellow citizens find themselves running. Then they are able to spot that, report it and get action to be taken. That wider range of workers and volunteers is especially important in making sure that there is a proper safety net of services in every part of Wales.

First Minister, as you just briefly mentioned, female genital mutilation, or FGM, is a crime and is undoubtedly abuse. This practice can cause extreme and lifelong physical and psychological suffering to women and girls, and it simply cannot be tolerated. Studies have shown two of the barriers to reporting new cases of FGM. First of all, there are fears of retribution from the wider community and concerns about interference in private family life. Secondly, secrecy concerning the practice means that traditional celebrations of FGM as a right of passage for girls are no longer held in the UK, and therefore wider family and community members may be unaware of FGM having taken place, or lack concrete evidence. What is your Government doing to heighten awareness that FGM is illegal, by working with those community leaders and groups most affected, to stamp out this practice once and for all here in Wales?

I thank the Member very much for that important question. The Welsh Government works at a variety of different levels to try and make sure that there's awareness of FGM, and that information about it can be communicated in a way that people are able to understand, that has some cultural sensitivity about it, but is nevertheless absolutely clear about the unacceptability of that practice here in Wales. At one end of the spectrum, that means that doctors are under an obligation to report instances of FGM if they think that they are coming across it, and at the other end of the spectrum we have community health workers, working directly in communities, making sure that information is available in languages, in ways that are genuinely available to those communities and the people who live in them. I share the Member's concern about the issue and I want to give an assurance that the Welsh Government works across the spectrum to try to pursue the issues in the way that she suggested.