I'd first like to thank our committee Chair, Jayne Bryant, for all her hard work during this report, and, of course, the clerks and staff who have so ably assisted the committee in our work, enabling us to do this important review and so quickly. It was palpably obvious that we needed to do this review quickly to understand the issues and also create awareness of what is happening within this Senedd, in the Welsh Government and across Wales, as to what is going on in our schools—the horrendous nature of it and the fact that it is a problem that is growing and will continue to grow unless we take action now.

Deputy Presiding Officer, Estyn's report on peer-on-peer sexual harassment among secondary school pupils in Wales, '"We don’t tell our teachers"', helped to inform, as our Chair said, and prompt this report. It shockingly found that half of all pupils said they had personal experience of peer-on-peer sexual harassment in some form, and three quarters of all pupils reported seeing other pupils experiencing it, with the most common forms of peer-on-peer sexual harassment during the school day. Sexual harassment's impact on learners can be so severe that it not only impacts their learning, but also their relationships, mental health, life prospects, and, in serious cases, can lead to self-harm and suicide.

At the start of this process, our Chair, Jayne Bryant, met with the police representatives last November, where she learned of the police's particular concern about peer-on-peer sexual harassment, which has become increasingly prevalent, especially online. This coincided with Estyn's preparations to report on its investigation into peer-on-peer harassment among secondary school pupils. The report, published on 8 December 2021, laid bare the enormity of the problem. It's commonplace in schools, and so much so, as our Chair outlined, that it's become normalised, which is extremely worrying.

It's clear from our findings that young people do not feel comfortable reporting their issues to school staff, and schools are struggling to respond in the instances when they do. This harassment is going on beyond school hours, as our Chair also outlined, permeating the lives of young people both online and in school, which was exacerbated by the pandemic, as was shown in our findings. As is said in the foreword, as seriously as we looked at the issue then, as I look back six months later, it is clear to me that we underestimated the enormity of the problem.

Estyn found that 61 per cent of female pupils and 29 per cent of male pupils have experienced sexual harassment—