Rhys ab Owen: Diolch yn fawr, Dirprwy Lywydd. Cwnsler Cyffredinol, you're more than aware of the concern that I and many in this Chamber—from Plaid Cymru and the Labour Party—have of the impact of the legislative consent motions on the devolution settlement and their increased use in this Senedd. The letter today from the Deputy Minister for the arts shows the chaotic nature of the LCM process; it...
Rhys ab Owen: Diolch yn fawr, Gwnsler Cyffredinol. As you know, the Human Rights Act 1998 and the European convention on human rights is at the very heart of devolution in Wales. Conformity with convention rights is safeguarded by the Government of Wales Act 2006 and was voted twice by referenda by the Welsh people. Given that the Westminster Government claims to respect referenda, it's surprising that...
Rhys ab Owen: Diolch yn fawr, Weinidog. Data just released under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 to Dr Robert Jones of the Wales Governance Centre showed that there has been an increase in the average number of Welsh women in prison between 2020 and 2021—gone up from 208 to 218. It also shows that women from north Wales are being held in the prison estate right across England, far away from their...
Rhys ab Owen: 5. What recent discussions has the Minister had with the Ministry of Justice on the establishment of the first residential women’s centre in Wales? OQ57779
Rhys ab Owen: 1. What assessment has the Welsh Government made of the impact of the proposed changes to the Human Rights Act 1998 on the Welsh devolution settlement? OQ57785
Rhys ab Owen: 4. What discussions has the Counsel General had with the Solicitors Regulation Authority and the Law Society on the proposal by the SRA to close the solicitors indemnity fund? OQ57784
Rhys ab Owen: Warm words are not enough for these communities.
Rhys ab Owen: It's time for us to correct this failure time and time again. It's time for this Senedd to show the communities of Wales devolution at its best. It's time for us to empower people, empower communities, and, by doing so, empower every part of the nation. A nation's strength is its communities. Thank you very much.
Rhys ab Owen: Jenny Rathbone—I'm pleased to see Jenny still with us online—has raised consistently the threat to the Roath Park pub on City Road. That's a pub that has stood on that spot since 1886, a meeting place for local people to come together to discuss and enjoy themselves. After a furious response to a planning application to demolish the pub and replace it with a block of soulless flats, the...
Rhys ab Owen: For a nation that's often called a community of communities, the lack of rights for community groups here beggars belief. Local gardens and parks, allotments and urban farms increase the value of an area, socially and economically. Community assets have been, and will continue to be, one of the most effective ways of strengthening community spirit, of facilitating collaboration and of...
Rhys ab Owen: People want to live in communities that are unique, that are personal, not some carbon copy of every other town and village. People don't want to live, nor do they want to visit, clone towns that offer nothing exciting, personal or dynamic. What work, therefore, has the Welsh Government done to streamline the process of community asset purchase and when will we see the Senedd codifying the...
Rhys ab Owen: When Wales was squeezed by Conservative austerity to pick up the bill for bankers, councils across our nation were forced to sell off community assets. While citizens in Scotland and in England were able to organise, work and mobilise to buy and protect their assets, this was not the same story in Wales. We will never know the full extent of community loss this nation faced during those years...
Rhys ab Owen: Thank you very much, Dirprwy Lywydd. I'm very pleased to see this cross-party element in this debate. A number of Conservatives have decided to contribute, perhaps it's the title 'taking back control' that attracted them to join in. But I'm giving a minute of my time to Peredur Owen Griffiths, to Mabon ap Gwynfor, Carolyn Thomas, Joel James, the two Samuels—Kurtz and Rowlands—and to Tom...
Rhys ab Owen: Well, that exists already with police and crime commissioners, and this is executive devolution in Manchester and London, which is completely different. And nobody here has mentioned the unification of the Welsh police force except for you, Mark Isherwood. The Thomas commission did not recommend it; the Silk commission did not recommend it. Now, the political symmetry—if you really are that...
Rhys ab Owen: Thank you very much, Dirprwy Lywydd, and thank you very much to my colleague Mike Hedges for tabling this debate today. Thank you also to John Griffiths for his work chairing the cross-party group on police, an important job of work, and also to my colleague Alun Davies. When he was a Minister—remember he was a Minister at one time—Alun Davies established the Welsh policing board, an...
Rhys ab Owen: Because this is not a new debate. Like last week, with St David's Day, we have been here before, and, let me say this quietly to you over there, it has previously had Tory support. Back in the early 1990s, Lord Hunt, the then Secretary of State for Wales, had come to an agreement with Ken Clarke, the Home Secretary, to devolve justice to the Welsh Office. Now, that was stopped because of the...
Rhys ab Owen: Diolch yn fawr, Weinidog. As we're reminded often by Jenny Rathbone, there are so many positives from rebuilding a local food economy: it creates jobs, it's great for the environment also, and there are so many excellent business opportunities here, as the local demand far exceeds the local supply at the moment. We've been reminded again, haven't we, recently about the importance of not being...
Rhys ab Owen: 7. What discussions has the Minister had within the Welsh Government and externally to ensure locally sourced food and drink are available in schools, care homes and hospitals? OQ57733
Rhys ab Owen: Thank you, First Minister, and thank you for the Government's work within the criminal justice system in Wales, which, of course, is not devolved to Wales.
Rhys ab Owen: Now, we have known for decades about the prejudices faced by people of ethnic minority within the justice system globally. What we have not known, until recent years, is that racial prejudice within the justice system in Wales seems to be worse here in Wales than in England. Through the work of the Cardiff University Wales Governance Centre, we now know that black offenders receive the...
