Could I thank you for what I thought was an incisive question, and a very pertinent question, in terms of the work that's going on at the moment, with regard to looking at the issues of youth justice and probation. As you know, at the moment, responsibility for criminal justice, including youth justice, is a reserved matter, but many aspects of it, quite rightly, are devolved Welsh services, and they are integral to the youth justice system. In fact, they are the major part, I think, of the youth justice system: issues around housing, education, healthcare and so on.

I think that it is also important to recognise, of course, that the youth justice blueprint, which we operate, is something that has been agreed jointly, in co-operation between the Welsh Government, the UK Government, policing in Wales and, indeed the Youth Justice Board. One of the areas that we are concerned with, obviously, is the availability of adequate and full disaggregation of data, so you can fully understand what is happening in various parts of Wales. We do have a number of interventions as well. So, the children and communities grant includes the promoting positive engagement fund.

What has happened with youth justice over the decade,and I understand the point you're making in terms of indications that there is a rise in reoffending and in certain areas in terms of crime, is, nevertheless that—. The objective being to keep young people out of the criminal justice system, to look for diversionary measures as soon as possible, is something that, looking over the decade, has been extremely successful. So, for example, whereas there has been some increases in reoffences in some areas, I think it's worth noting that offending by children has significantly reduced over the past 10 years. The youth justice data analysts provided the data—. Data is not always available, but the data we do have certainly shows us that, according to the Youth Justice Board, published statistics in 2021 showed that there were 613 young people in Wales who'd received a caution or conviction—now, that is 76 per cent fewer than in 2013-14. So, the progress that's been made, and the success in the youth justice area, is, I think, important, but I don't think there is any grounds for complacency.

I think the approach that we've adopted is the correct approach, recognising the impact of early years experiences on children, but also looking at the most important way of actually keeping young people out of the future criminal justice system, which is by that early Intervention. So, the figures we have are much lower than they've been in the past. The increase in first-time entrance into the justice system is lower than it has been in the past, but there is considerable attention being given to how we actually not only maintain that, but how do we actually improve it.

I recently attended the counterparts in terms of youth justice in Scotland, and was very impressed with the work that is going on in terms of very early intervention in terms of identification of people who are on that criminal pathway. And by criminality, it's not just young people who might commit an offence, it is also the exploitation of young people that brings them into the criminal system as well. So, the prevention framework, I think, is something that brings all the evidence and work together into one place. That's the direction we want to go in. I think it is also the case—. That is why it is so important, I think, that youth justice is something that is devolved, because we need to actually have that consistent setting of youth justice policy and its engagement with 90 per cent of its functions, which are already devolved functions.