Welsh Conservative Shadow Communities Secretary Mark Isherwood AM has challenged the First Minister over police recruitment, threatened by Welsh Government policy denying Police Forces in Wales access to funding for apprenticeships.
Mr Isherwood has been raising the issue in the Assembly Chamber since March following concern expressed by the four Police and Crime Commissioners and four Chief Constables in Wales, but has been disappointed by the partisan responses he has received.
Yesterday, he raised the issue again with the First Minister, Carwyn Jones, warning of the impact the inability of police forces in Wales to access the Apprenticeship Levy will have on police numbers in the future, but he received the same dismissive response.
Speaking in the Chamber, he said:
“Three weeks ago, I raised concern with you expressed by the four Police and Crime Commissioners and four Chief Constables in Wales that their inability to access the £2 million they paid to the Apprenticeship Levy could result in fewer police officers, and potential recruits choosing to sign up for English forces instead.
“In your response, you confirmed, of course, that you’d received (from the UK Government) a share of the Apprenticeship Levy in Welsh Government, but cannot, in good faith, pay towards apprenticeship schemes that sit in non-devolved areas’.
“In reality, in the 2017-18 Welsh Government budget, you said you would give £0.5 million to Police and Crime Commissioners ‘to ensure that they are not disadvantaged as a result of the Apprenticeship Levy’. You actually received £128 million, which covers the £90 million removed from the Barnett block, it covers the £30 million paid into the Levy by Welsh public sector employers, and left an £8 million top-up above that level.
“What engagement are you therefore having as a Government with the Police and Crime Commissioners and Chief Constables over this very serious matter to ensure that you give the maximum support you can, where you’re able to, in this area?”
In his response, the First Minister said: “I have to say to the Member: he cannot stand there and say that policing shouldn’t be devolved and then say we should spend money on a service that isn’t devolved. If policing had been devolved, this would be a matter for us. We argue it should be devolved, like every other emergency service. It is a matter for the UK Government to fund the training of police officers. Otherwise, give us the budget, give us devolution, and we’ll do it.”
Mark added: “The UK Government has given them the money! Carwyn Jones should move on from his fixation with reactionary Party politics and either put the people first or tell us why the Welsh Government position in its Final Budget 2017-18, that our police forces should not be disadvantaged as a result of the Apprenticeship Levy, has changed.”