North Wales Assembly Member Mark Isherwood has today called for the cross-border nature of criminal activity to be central to the operation of justice and policing in Wales and said that calls for the devolution of justice and policing should not be answered.
Speaking in today’s Debate: ‘Report of the Commission on Justice in Wales’, Mr Isherwood highlighted failings in the criminal justice system in Wales, referred to Wales’ high rate of imprisonment, and said devolving criminal justice would be a bad move.
He said:
“We recognise the dedication and commitment to public service shown by the many people and organisations who work within the justice system – but regret failings in the criminal justice system in Wales, where the Welsh Government has responsibility for a range of key services.
“The Thomas Commission on Justice Report refers to the “distinct and developing social, health and education policy and services” in Wales – and states that “whilst there are areas of good practice across the justice system which can be built on, serious failings must be addressed”.
“However, instead of joining up the dots, it then proposes the devolution of Justice and Policing, ignoring the developing Police and Justice policy agenda at UK level which embraces both the geographic and demographic realities and Wales’ devolution settlement.
“As the Wales Governance Centre found, Wales has the highest rate of imprisonment in Western Europe - and although the total number of prison sentences rose in Wales between 2010 and 2017, they fell by 16% in England. The report’s author stated that “wider research is needed to try to explain Wales’ high rate of imprisonment”.
“This is particularly relevant given that many of the services required to manage offenders, ex-offenders and promote rehabilitation are already devolved.
“Such a difference in delivery within what is a shared criminal justice system provides yet another reason why the calls for devolution of criminal justice should not be answered.
“The UK Government’s commitment to deliver offender management services in Wales which reflect the devolved responsibilities of the Welsh Government is to be welcomed”.
He added:
“The cross-border nature of criminal activity must be central to the operation of justice and policing in Wales.
“Calls for this to be devolved fail to acknowledge that criminal activity does not recognise national or regional boundaries, 48% of people in Wales live within 25 miles of the border with England, and 90% within 50 miles.
“The Thomas Commission on Justice Report only includes one reference to any cross-border criminality, in the context of County Lines, along the M4 corridor and North Wales - and the solution it proposes is joint working across the four Welsh forces in collaboration with other agencies, but no reference to partners across the border.
“I recently visited ‘TITAN’, the North West Regional Organised Crime Unit, established in 2009 as a collaboration between the six police forces in North Wales, Cheshire, Merseyside, Greater Manchester, Lancashire and Cumbria, to tackle serious organised crime that crosses county borders in the region.
“We heard that: all North Wales emergency planning is done with North West England; 95% or more of crime in North Wales is local or operates on a cross-border East/West basis; North Wales Police have no significant operations working on an all-Wales basis, and that evidence given to the Thomas Commission by the Chief Constables and Police and Crime Commissioners in Wales was largely ignored in the Commission’s Report”.
