I thank the Member for the comments. The first point you raise is actually a very fundamental one and perhaps, on reflection, I should have made more emphasis of it. It is absolutely vital and essential that we uphold and maintain the independence of Government of the judiciary and of the court system, and any Welsh system and aspects of a Welsh system will uphold those principles. One of the key issues, again within tribunal development, will be to ensure that is it, that our tribunal system, our embryonic justice system, is not an agency of Government, but is a body that is completely independent of Government in the way it operates. That does not contradict the concept and the role in terms of how justice is actually delivered and how justice actually engages.

You raise valid points in terms of legal aid, and, of course, we have tried to ameliorate the impact of the legal aid cuts with the single advice fund. But you're absolutely right, there are two aspects to it: one is access to legal advice and legal support for those who need it; the other is the availability of those lawyers and advice workers who are capable of actually giving that support. And the fact is that, in some of our poorest communities and our rural communities, there is an increasing desert of availability, and that is why the developing of the Welsh legal economy is so important and why we are looking at things like apprenticeships and the way in which we might actually give further support to those particular firms, because they have a vital role to do as well. And, in fact, the role of those legal aid lawyers in communities is massively undervalued and under-represented when we talk about the justice system.

You talked about virtual courts, and, of course, to some extent we have had the development of that during the COVID situation. They are not a substitute for everybody, and we have to be very aware of the potential inequalities that arise. We know that something like seven per cent of over-16s do not have digital access. Twenty-five per cent of many of our communities do not have adequate digital skills. So, we have to ensure that, where appropriate, and where virtual courts can take place—. And that has been developed, to some extent, within our tribunal system—that is a good thing and a progressive thing, but it is not something that on its own can solve the issues of access. So, the equality issue has to be considered very, very carefully within that development, and I know the Member has spoken about that in the past. You're absolutely right in terms of the issue you raise in terms of early intervention and the importance of that within the broader social and justice system.

And in terms of resources, let's say this: isn't it about time we stopped investing in failure and started actually investing in prevention, in engagement and co-operation? What we have at the moment is enormous amounts of money being spent on a system that is failing, on a prison system that doesn't work, that doesn't achieve et cetera. You just think how much more effectively those resources could be used with a different direction in terms of social and justice policy. Diolch.