The Shadow Communities and Local Government Minister, Mark Isherwood AM, reacted to the announcement that the controversial “votes for prisoners” amendment which the Welsh Government had planned to introduce after today’s Debate and vote on the general principles of the Local Government and Elections (Wales) Bill (April 8), has been dropped, saying:
“Welsh Conservatives have long campaigned against the extension of votes for prisoners, and so I am delighted that the Welsh Government has been forced to see sense and drop its plans to introduce this unpopular section to the Bill, at least for now”.
“Votes for prisoners serving sentences of four years or less would have enfranchised people convicted of some serious crimes, including sexual assault, breach of a sex offender order, racially-aggravated crimes, and necrophilia.
“Furthermore, whilst we strongly support action to rehabilitate prisoners, we heard during the Committee inquiry into voting rights for prisoners that few prisoners would either use a right to vote, or see it as an incentive to rehabilitate.
“To have attempted to push through this legislation through – when all business must be focused solely on battling Covid-19 (Coronavirus), a national crisis – is not the best use of the Welsh Parliament’s time.
“However, we must pay careful attention to what has been said. The Minister for Local Government stated she ‘… would not commit further resources to this at the moment’, and so we should be mindful that the Welsh Labour administration does not try to push this through later, when the country has come through this emergency.
“After all, the Minister has only committed to not introduce this at the next stage of this Bill, but this does not stop her reintroducing it at the Bill’s final stages.”
