3. Will the Minister make a statement on community safety in Rhyl and Prestatyn? OQ58989

Thank you very much, Gareth Davies. We are working with the police and other partner organisations to promote community safety in Rhyl, Prestatyn and across Wales. Policing is a reserved matter, but we work closely with the police on strategic issues and provide significant funding for police community support officers to protect communities across Wales.

Thank you for that answer, Minister. Thanks to the work of the UK Government in increasing the amount of police officers in north Wales, crime is falling in Rhyl. But in a recent meeting with the local police force, it was noted that anti-social behaviour by youths as young as 13 is responsible for up to 75 per cent of all anti-social behaviour in Rhyl town centre. Sadly, a lack of strong family structure and parental responsibility is leading to these youths potentially turning to crime. Therefore, what steps will you take to ensure that people in Rhyl town centre are safe and what will you do to ensure that these youths do not continue to commit anti-social behaviour? Thank you.

Well, Gareth, as I've said, we're committed to keeping communities in Wales as safe as possible, both in Rhyl and Prestatyn, and across the country. We have sought to do that through our programme for government. Even though it's not devolved, we, the Welsh Government, have maintained our funding for 500 police community support officers, and we're increasing their number in these very stretched times by 100. These are funded by the Welsh Government, not by the UK Government—by the Welsh Government. We are the envy across England, in Wales, for what we're doing. I do want to put on record again that this means annual funding of over £22 million, and we've funded that despite policing being reserved and being in a challenging fiscal position.

I do want to answer your point about the fact that PCSOs, I think, are crucial in promoting community safety and tackling anti-social behaviour. We know that many of those issues that are facing people we are working on with other initiatives, in terms of our youth offending strategy and in terms of our work to tackle substance misuse, violence against women and domestic abuse. But I think that PCSOs act as ears and eyes on the ground for police forces; they build local relationships and create a sense of security in our communities.