When asked what the biggest issues facing students was, Stephen Doughty did not reach for fees or the cost of living. He talked about safety. ‘Students are citizens in this city, just like anybody else’, the Minister of State and MP for Cardiff South and Penarth told Gair Rhydd.

‘They want to be safe, they want to be secure, they want to have their bins taken away, they want to be able to walk safely at night, they want to be able to enjoy what is an amazing city, like anybody else, no matter where they come from’.

Then he moved to sexual violence, an area we had not asked yet. He was explicit: tackling sexual violence is a top priority for the UK Government, and it must start with the people affected.

‘Always listening to survivors and victims’ he said, because ‘without understanding their perspective (...) we are not going to be able to make a better future’.

I believe he means it. He is happy to meet Time To Act to discuss his role, and the government’s, in stopping sexual misconduct. Policy written without survivors in the room will almost always fail the victims. For students, the need is clear. A 2024 Office for Students pilot survey in England found that 20% of students had experienced unwanted sexual behaviour.

Women were more than twice as likely as men to experience sexual harassment (27% to 12%) and over three times as likely to experience sexual assault or violence. Yet only 12% of students who experienced harassment made a formal report to their university and 43% of those who did call the experience poor.

90% of those who experienced sexual assault or violence did not report it to the police. The prosecution figures partly back Doughty up. The Crown Prosecution Service says rape suspects charged have hit a 20-year-high and the conviction rate has risen 2.5%.

Locally, 13% of victim based investigations in South Wales end in a charge, 4 points above the national average. But rising charges hide a system failing at the other end. In South Wales, cases open for more than a year jumped from 243 at the end of 2024 to 336, a rise of 38%, and across the UK the CPS receives 2.6 adult rape cases for every it finishes.

Cases are going in faster than they come out, leaving victims waiting for a charge that may never become a conviction. A rise in charges measures how busy the system is, not how well it works. Doughty is right to put listening to survivors first, because if students do not trust the system enough to report sexual misconduct, no number of charges will fix it. But, listening is only the start.

What is needed now is the next step: specific targets, a deadline and survivors given a seat at the table. Doughty also pointed to policing as a test of whether promises will translate into change. He argued that Labour’s reversal of police cuts and putting more officers on the streets has had a direct impact on communities and said he is pushing for greater funding for Cardiff.

The figures appear to support his claim. Forces received up to £17.6 billion and in February 2026, neighbourhood policing roles had grown by 3123, beating the target of 2972. Showing promise, it may reach the 2029 goal of 13,000.

The figures also lend to a greater investment locally: South Wales received 91 new neighbourhood police officers, higher than areas like Merseyside receiving 79 and Warwickshire receiving 18. Doughty arrived with a clear message: ‘students are citizens’ and deserve to be treated like it. The figures are slowly moving in the right direction, now the next step is making sure students feel the difference.