4. Will the Minister make a statement on the provision of sexual assault referral centres? OQ57059

We continue to work in partnership with the NHS, the police and the third sector to provide access to sexual assault referral centres in Wales. This joint working ensures access to trained and experienced professionals for help and support, and to provide advice for victims of sexual assault.

Thank you very much, and I'm particularly grateful that you answered through the medium of Welsh. These sexual assault referral centres provide a very important service to vulnerable people who clearly have gone through appalling experiences. Now, when one looks at sexual assault statistics, there isn't much difference between the number of sexual assaults for every 1,000 of the population in our rural communities as compared to urban communities. However, the level of provision available in our rural areas is appalling, particularly in north Wales. There is only one sexual health referral centre in the whole of north Wales, and that's in Colwyn Bay. It's a four-hour journey on public transport for somebody from Tudweiliog, for example, or from Harlech to Colwyn Bay. Minister, don't you agree that it's time that we saw investment in a sexual assault referral centre, a second in north Wales, in a place that is more convenient to the residents of Gwynedd and Anglesey?

Diolch yn fawr, Mabon ap Gwynfor, and thank you for putting that focus on our SARC programme. It is so important that we do have that access to sexual assault referral centres across the whole of Wales, and focusing particularly on rural Wales and north Wales, where you, obviously, are the representative. We do have robust collaborative working arrangements to ensure that there is that multi-agency response, which I know you recognise is crucial. We have a programme board, which oversees this in terms of the SARC provision across Wales. It's hosted in the NHS collaborative and, of course, it's all aiming to improve health outcomes for victims and survivors of sexual assault. The programme is actually based on a regional approach, so I will take this back in terms of the representations you're making today. We do have an integrated service already available in north Wales, but I think it's your points about distance and access to accredited facilities, for example, that are crucially important. I'll just, perhaps, also mention that this is something where we have a new regional hub being developed here in Cardiff, but that can be a model for the rest of Wales.

Thank you, Mabon, for asking this really important question. In our region, ahead of this year's White Ribbon events, I've been working with sexual violence charity, New Pathways, and it operates six of Wales's eight SARCs. They do an amazing job of supporting victims, overwhelmingly women and girls, and I'm pleased to say that they recently received new funding to support more people in more ways. But far too many victims are let down by the criminal justice system. Police and prosecutors need far more resources and training to expedite sexual assault and rape investigations in Wales. This is critical, not least because we know that lengthy court processes, combined with persistently and pitifully low conviction rates, put off victims from reporting those crimes. So, what discussions have you had, Minister, with Ministry of Justice officials about prioritising victims over perpetrators and improving swift access to justice?

Well, I thank Joyce Watson for that question, and also in recognition of her diligent and long-standing commitment to addressing the needs of victims in terms of improving the sexual assault referral centres' provision. And also focusing particularly in terms of the need for justice for those victims and the importance, as I said in response to the first question from Mabon, of this multi-agency response. This is about how we prioritise our SARC services, and we need to ensure that the police and the Home Office play their parts as far as this is concerned, so we were also very pleased to support New Pathways in terms of additional funding and support.

But we have actually got to instil confidence in victims that, if they report, those who abuse will be held to account, and that's why, of course, in terms of the importance of us having influence and furthering that influence to more responsibility in the criminal justice system, it is so important that you raised this issue this afternoon.

Can I just say that it's also very linked to our violence against women, domestic abuse and sexual violence strategy, which we are developing the next phase of for the next five years? It's interesting that we are actually enhancing remote court hearing facilities, for example, across Wales, which I think we are helping to fund, or are funding, because we know how important it is for victims to present secure evidence safely by video link.