Writing this column feels different than it usually does, and that’s because this is my last one as a regional member of the Welsh Parliament for South Wales East.

Since taking on the role in 2021, I have met some wonderful constituents, businesses, charities and groups, and championed our area tirelessly in the Senedd.

I am standing for re-election for the Newport and Islwyn constituency, but unfortunately – if returned – I will no longer represent Monmouthshire.

It has been an absolute pleasure serving you and I want to thank everyone who elected me to this job.

For my final column, I want to focus on something which is extremely important to me, and that’s tackling violence against women and girls.

It’s fast approaching a year since the Supreme Court made its landmark ruling which clarified that sex, under the Equality Act, means biological sex and that single-sex spaces and services must be just that – single-sex.

Yet despite that ruling – which was in the words of the UK Government’s education minister Bridget Phillipson “crystal, crystal clear” – the Labour Government in Wales has so far failed to take action to protect women and girls.

Late last year the Women’s Rights Network released a report into the use of mixed sex changing rooms in leisure centres, and it made for incredibly difficult reading.

In fact, reading that report made me incredibly angry.

Data supplied by three police forces in Wales highlighted just how unsafe mixed sex changing rooms are.

In one year alone, there were 6 reports of rape, 2 reports of sexual assault, and 7 reports of voyeurism.

In at least 73% of those cases, the victim was female, and in at least 87% of cases the alleged perpetrator was male.

88% of cases occurred in mixed sex changing facilities.

That is sickening. And the lack of action from the Welsh Government is what has made me truly angry.

Time and time again I’ve raised this with Labour ministers in the Senedd, calling on them to act.

Every time I do, I get fobbed off with the government saying they are waiting for revised guidance, even though the EHRC have insisted there is no need to wait for the Code of Practice.

Labour is failing to protect women and girls in Wales. If the Welsh Conservatives are fortunate enough to form the next Welsh Government, that will change.

We will protect female-only spaces.