Wales Assembly Question Time: Leader of the House and Chief Whip: Hate Crime - Nov 14

Thursday, 15 November 2018 07:46

Dawn Bowden AM: Will the Leader of House provide an update on Welsh Government action to tackle hate crime? Julie James AM (Leader of the House and Chief Whip): We are building on our tackling hate crime programme and expanding our community cohesion work across Wales to mitigate any rise in hate crime. Our hate crime criminal justice board is...Request free trial

Dawn Bowden AM: Will the Leader of House provide an update on Welsh Government action to tackle hate crime?

Julie James AM (Leader of the House and Chief Whip): We are building on our tackling hate crime programme and expanding our community cohesion work across Wales to mitigate any rise in hate crime. Our hate crime criminal justice board is an effective forum, bringing together key partners to co-ordinate our work in this area.

Dawn Bowden AM: Thank you for that, leader of the house. First of all, can I thank you and what the Welsh Government have been doing on this important issue? The scale of the problem was recently highlighted by the Equality and Human Rights Commission report that we debated last week, and it's an important question for all Assembly Members to consider, and even more for all of us to acknowledge that the language that we choose to use in the Senedd shapes the messages that we send to the people of Wales. So, would you agree with me that what we say and what we do in this place plays an important part in encouraging an atmosphere that can help to reduce the current levels of hate crime in Wales?

Julie James AM: I completely agree with Dawn Bowden when she raises this very important point. Yesterday, I had the privilege of addressing the multifaith forum meeting over in the Pierhead, and they were about to do a walk through of all of the various faith communities of Cardiff. Unfortunately, due to Plenary commitments, I couldn't join them, but that was all about stressing the need for individual responsibility, individual action—the importance of each individual's actions in the sum of the whole in terms of our culture, and I really endorse that absolutely.

Here in Wales, we want as leaders to represent all of the communities that we represent fairly, openly, with honesty and respect, because all of our communities deserve that. And it is a fundamental point that the way that we talk about each other and to each other very much matters in the ethos that we set here in Wales.

Mohammad Asghar (Oscar): Leader of the house, incidents of anti-semitism have been on the rise across the United Kingdom. In the first six months of this year, 727 anti-Semitic incidents were recorded by the Community Security Trust. It has been reported by The Jewish Chronicle that one of your Welsh colleagues questioned whether anti-Semitic hate crime was 'real', and whether the threat is all 'in their own heads'.

Leader of the house, will you take this opportunity to state clearly that anti-semitism is a hate crime, and will you join me in condemning these comments, which totally fail to recognise the threat faced by our communities, especially Jewish communities in Wales?

Julie James AM: Yes. On 17 October, the First Minister issued a written statement to confirm that in adopting the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance's working definition of anti-semitism in May of last year, we included the 11 examples from the outset in full and without qualification. So, I am very happy to make it absolutely clear that anti-semitism in any form will not be tolerated here in Wales—or any other form of racist language, action or attitudes. The Welsh Government is committed to encouraging victims of anti-semitism to report it. We are working hard with our partners to protect and support victims of anti-Semitic abuse and violence and to hold perpetrators to account. We are determined to ensure that Wales continues to be a friendly and tolerant place in which to live, study and work, a country where anti-semitism has no place in our society—or any other form of racist or intolerant language or abuse.

Caroline Jones AM: Leader of the house, I welcome the actions you are taking to tackle hate crime. However, this is a growing issue, particularly online. Many young people are subjected to a constant barrage of hate, hate speech and online bullying, from which there is no escape. Leader of the house, will you outline how you and the Cabinet Secretary for Education, in conjunction with the UK Government, are working with the technology sector to stop the spread of online hate speech and cyber bullying in Wales?

Julie James AM: Yes, it's a very important point that the Member raises. Obviously, social media is a growing part of our culture and language, and we ought to have the same standards of conduct and respect and tolerance and inclusion for each other in social media as we do everywhere else. It's particularly unfortunate that people feel that they can be anonymous there, and there's a piece of work for all of us, I think, to take forward in developing rules as the twenty-first century unfolds around anonymity in these sorts of forums.

The Welsh Government provided £5,000 again this year to each of the four Welsh forces and Victim Support to actively support National Hate Crime Awareness Week in October and to raise awareness of hate crime throughout the year, and that includes in the digital space. I also work very closely with the Cabinet Secretary for Education in supporting our be safe on the internet week, which was only very recently, and in supporting our digital pioneers and young internet cadets right throughout Wales in both recognising bullying for what it is, whether it's online or not online, and actually in learning the skills and techniques to ensure that they and their colleagues are safe and that they learn how to look out for each other both in the physical space and in cyberspace.