3. Urgent Question: Grass Fires

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 2:37 pm on 28 March 2017.

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Photo of Andrew RT Davies Andrew RT Davies Conservative 2:37, 28 March 2017

Cabinet Secretary, thank you for your responses so far. The pictures that came out from many of these fires were dramatic, in the negative sense, over the weekend, because, obviously, there is the potential to life—not just of the firemen and women, obviously, who are tackling these blazes, but also residents in close proximity to the blazes as well. I well remember your colleague Leighton Andrews coming here to give similar responses in the previous Assembly, and yet, regrettably, we see these fires—very early, I would suggest, in the season; it was the first really dry weekend that we’ve had so far of the spring.

I’d ask you the same question I asked of him: very often, a lot of the people who are associated with some of these fires can be tracked through social media, because, as I said, the pictures are dramatic, and, very often, people are going for that wow factor—in a very negative way, I would suggest. So, what actions are you taking, along with the police, along with the fire service—I hear the fire service have excellent educational tools at their disposal, and are going into schools, but that doesn’t seem to be stopping the arsonists in their tracks? And social media is the tool that’s driving many copycat examples, across the Valleys in particular. So, I’d be grateful to understand what work you have done, along with the enforcement agencies, to try and track and follow people on social media who are exhorting people to undertake such acts of arson and vandalism.