Thank you, Llywydd, and thank you for the opportunity to provide—the opportunity to debate and talk about hate crime, and the positive steps we’re taking here in Wales.

First of all, I sat and listened slightly astounded by the contribution that Neil made, and his colleague, around there, because you, like Paul Nuttall, describe the position of hate crime technically as a fabricated event, fabricated figures that the UK Government police agencies have published. And we can’t get away from the fact that you can have an opinion on that, like I do, but the figures speak for themselves. I was taken aback at your comment—and maybe you’d want to clarify that, but you said about, in other countries, people burning down mosques. Then you went on to clarify that as being racist, but then you went on to say, shouting abuse on a bus, is that a real crime? I would say, ‘Yes, it was’, because if you look at YouTube videos—. The assault of individuals on buses is unacceptable wherever that is, to whatever race, colour or creed a person is. We cannot have and should not have a measured approach to what’s acceptable and what isn’t acceptable. This is all unacceptable

Let me just put on record the figures that the Member quoted in terms of detail. I’m genuinely concerned about what’s been happening since 2015, and the crime survey won’t give us all the 2015-18 data until next year, but what we do have to hand are reliable figures of the number of reported hate crimes from the police forces in Wales, and from our national hate crime report and support centre. Both of these sources showed a clear spike in reported hate crime last summer around the time of the referendum. Since March this year, following the terror attacks in London and Manchester, these figures also show that there has also been another spike, albeit smaller, particularly in racially motivated hate crime. The Member cannot disagree with those figures. They are factual, and I’m really surprised—[Interruption.] Sorry, if the Member wishes to intervene, I’m more than happy for—.